I'm one of the unfortunate people that needs to be extra meticulous about oral hygiene. I've had to invest a small fortune in my teeth and have needed crowns and painful root canals all my adult life, and even one implant. I finally did a complete makeover a year ago that included veneers to bring order and consistency to my smile. I get compliments all the time over my teeth now, but the hidden side is that I live in constant fear of what I eat, not to break anything or develop complications from lodged food particles. If you were born with healthy beautiful teeth you are blessed indeed. Anyway, either way, it requires regular and thorough cleaning to maintain healthy teeth and gums. Oral health problems can lead to other severe health problems including heart disease! Who would have made that connection not long ago. Add to that the obscene amount you might need to give to your dentist when problems do need to be addressed and you have every incentive to maintain your teeth with the best practices and tools available. Personally, I floss religiously, use a Waterpik, use a stainless steel tongue scraper twice daily and, of course brush after every meal. On that last factor, you have many choices as to what brush to use, which is why you're here right now trying to make a decision.
I have owned and used every generation of Oral B Electric Toothbrush since they first came out and love them. Your conventional toothbrush can do a very thorough job provided you use it correctly and spend the required time. Human nature, as it is, often translates to putting the brush in your mouth, especially in a hurried morning or a fatigued evening as your mind wanders and you wind up satisfied that you "brushed" when the reality is the job was not thorough or complete creating a false sense of security. A good electric toothbrush has the advantage of being more thorough even when you're not paying attention to what you're doing. There has been no doubt that each generation of Oral B has made my teeth feel super clean, though each new generation tries to offer more enhancements, along with higher prices. When it looked like they couldn't go anywhere more with its design, they came out with bluetooth connectivity and a phone app! That seemed like superficial fluff when I first saw it. Do you really need to use your phone to brush your teeth? It turns out, there are some serious benefits since it helps you to concentrate and focus for those 2 minutes on what you're doing. Sad state of affairs if we have trouble focusing for a whole two minutes. Sadly, that's the contemporary attention span deficit. This latest generation, The Genius, claims to incorporate AI with the app. The bluetooth somehow determines the position of the toothbrush in your hand/mouth and as you stay in a quadrant of your mouth the picture representation of that area of your teeth turns from blue to white and that's when its time to move on to another quadrant. If you brush without the app on, the brush handle itself generates a stutter step signal after 30 seconds indicating it's time to move on. It doesn't give that small pause with the app on for some reason but its all visual. How well does it work? Its a bit spotty and has a little trouble at times showing where you're brushing, so I give it a B- there. The handle itself is a nice piece of industrial design . The back side is a grippy material and easy to hold. The front has the power button, and underneath it a smaller button that allows you to choose which mode you prefer. Below that are 5 icons representing the mode and includes gentle, whitening and tongue scraping. I subscribe to the gentle is better school of thought so keep it in gentle mode. Below that is an icon that lights up to indicate a bluetooth connection and below that is the battery strength indicator. At the top of the handle is a ring of led lighting whose color you can choose via the app. It's function is to indicate if you're pressing on your teeth too hard, in which case it lights up and the brush speed slows down. The brush head slides into the top above that ring and there is a small colored buffer ring attached that can be used to color code which family member belongs to that brush head. The handle stands up on a small charging unit between uses.
So how does it all come together, and how does it compare with its chief rival, Phillips Sonicare, which you might be cross shopping it with? In a word, the unit is Great. Its easy to hold and control in your hand. The mode choices are helpful and the pressure warning light is a great safety feature. The bluetooth and app still need some perfecting but sometimes work as desired. The AI claim isn't some mad intelligence living in the handle, but is evidently something that took X amount of users and their brushing techniques and incorporates it into the correct way to use the brush via the app. Personally, it's more Hype unless I'm missing something here. The Genius X is a powerful tool and the round brush head is small but substantial. My teeth are very sensitive. So I notice the power of the unit even in gentle mode. I might compare it to the feel of the old American Muscle cars. It feels powerful and does a thorough though slightly visceral cleaning. By comparison, the Phillips Sonicare DiamondClean approaches cleaning with a different approach. Sonic vibration. Besides the obvious food particles that need to be removed after a meal, the real threat to your teeth is when bacteria form a biofilm. Bacteria multiply faster than a toddler darting off after toy when you take your eye off them for an instant. That multiplication can form a thin film shoulder to shoulder, not unlike football players in a huddle or rugby players in a scrim, that quickly becomes hard to dislodge if allowed too much time to get established. The vibration of the Phillips is supposed to break up any film so the motion seems less aggressive than the Oral B. You use the handles differently, moving the Phillips less. The Phillips, using the car analogy, seems more like Ferrari with a more precise and highly tuned engine than the rumbling rawness of a muscle car. Do they both clean equally well? Yes, I think so. I have and use them both. I tend to favor the Oral B when my teeth seem in need of a deeper more aggressive cleaning, maybe if I missed a brushing that day already. The Phillips is a a finer feeling tool maybe better if you never miss a cleaning. I love the gentle vibration and feel it might be aiding my gums also perhaps increasing blood flow just a bit. Also the model I have comes with a glass rinsing cup that doubles as the holder and wireless recharging method. That's pure genius! I asked my dentist just the other day about his thought regarding the two. He said that most of his patients prefer the Oral B though he himself uses the Phillips Diamond Clean. One thing I will point out, regarding the selection of this Genius X offering, is that for some weird reason at the time of this review, the "Limited" version is 199 dollars. Yet, the "10000" model is currently 50 dollars less, comes with 2 heads not just one and the case allows you to charge the brush when stored. Unless I'm missing something, you're getting more for much less. So scan the offerings listed before you click a purchase.
Forgive me if my review was too wordy. In conclusion, I can highly recommend this new Genius X Oral B brush assembly. It's not cheap and a less expensive iteration of almost any Oral B brush might do a similarly thorough cleaning job for half this price, though without some of the bells and whistles. My final words, without sounding preachy, as someone who knows the tremendous monetary expense and excruciating physical pain dental procedures often involve, is to get a quality electric toothbrush and use it daily. In addition, make flossing at least once a day part of your oral care routine. Its absolutely worth the time and expense!
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