‘Spit not rinse’: how I tested 20 electric toothbrushes (and became a toothbrushing pro)

When the Filter asked me to write a roundup of the best electric toothbrushes, I didn’t see any reason not to. After all, I’ve been reviewing battery-powered gadgets for more than a decade, and I have all 32 teeth and a comfortable toothpaste budget, which makes me as qualified as anybody else.

Or does it? Actually, in the absence of professional toothbrushing leagues*, how would I know if I’m an expert in the art of oral hygiene or not? Conventional (and, as it turns out, likely bogus) wisdom suggests that anyone can become an expert in anything with 10,000 hours of practice.

By this metric, brushing twice for a total of four minutes daily, you would finally reach enlightenment during your 411th year, at which point you’d probably have more pressing medical concerns than oral hygiene.

While it’s nice to put my comparatively young age into perspective, it was clear I needed a bit of guidance on the art and science of teeth brushing. So I got on a call with Bupa Dental Care’s head of hygiene and therapy, Caitlin Miller.

First of all, are electric toothbrushes actually better? In short, yes. While you can get the same results with a manual toothbrush, most people won’t – or not without spending a lot longer at the sink anyway.

“There are people who can do a perfectly good job with a manual brush, but for the majority of my patients, I will see improvements when people go on to an electric toothbrush,” says Miller.

So, what should you look for when going electric? A pressure sensor is the main feature, as counterintuitively, pushing too hard dampens the vibrations and the bristles, weakening performance. Thankfully, most electric toothbrushes now have this as standard. “Slightly more fancy ones have a pressure sensor that tells you if you’re brushing too softly as well as too hard or just right,” Miller says.

Our expert practising the art of oral hygiene. Photograph: Alan Martin

She’d also recommend a built-in timer for the full two minutes, and a sensitive setting, because sore gums and mouth ulcers are a thing, and you still need to brush daily.

Reassuringly, none of these things are exclusive to those intimidatingly priced top-end toothbrushes with prices rivalling smartphones. An £800 device should get similar results to a £100 one if you brush right, in other words.

And how does one brush right? “You want to hold your toothbrush at a 45-degree angle – half on the gum, half on the tooth,” Miller says. “You should be holding it horizontally, sweeping across the tooth and gum margins.

“You don’t move it up and down, or round and round. That’s the beauty of the electric toothbrush: you can be pretty lazy with it and it still does a good job.”

That laziness should also extend to your movements, keeping the brush on each tooth for a couple of seconds. And when you’re done, you should keep the toothpaste in your mouth (“Spit not rinse is what we say”). As for changing heads, this should be done every three months, but sooner if they’re looking splayed or frayed – or if you’ve been ill lately because they can harbour bacteria for a surprisingly long time.

It turns out that being a pro toothbrusher isn’t that hard after all – now I kind of wish there were professional leagues. Having used a whole lot of toothbrushes over the past few months, I’m not short of experience, even if my toothpaste expenditure will have to rise to match the new hobby.

* To avoid looking silly, I did Google this, and all I found was a bunch of horribly creepy AI-generated images of a fictional contest. Click at your peril.

This week’s picks

• The best blenders to blitz like a pro, tried and tested, from Ninja to Nutribullet

• 14 of the best men’s boots for winter, from Chelsea to brogues to western

• The best slow cookers for effortless homemade meals, tried and tested

Editor’s pick

Photograph: skynesher/Getty Images

As thoughts turn to getting in shape, knowing what kit can help motivate you – and what is simply a waste of money – is invaluable.

We asked ordinary folk who have got fit about what they spent their hard-earned cash on, and how it helped. From a £10 pull-up bar to a sports bra that actually works, a running buggy that helped a postpartum mum get back in shape to winter overshoes for a cyclist who suffers from cold toes, these are the things they recommended.

Hannah Booth
Editor, the Filter

In case you missed it …

Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Prop stylist: Anna Wilkins.

Which supermarket has the best tinned tomatoes? Which ones have a pleasingly rich sauce and satisfying chunks, and which are a little watery and thin? We found out, in collaboration with Feast, in the first piece from our new weekly series of supermarket essentials taste tests.

This week, Felicity Cloake puts crunchy peanut butter through its paces to discover the best – and tells us which brand she buys herself. There’s a new taste test every Saturday, on the Filter and in Feast magazine.

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