Philips Sonicare brushed up best in Canstar Blue’s electric toothbrush review for the SECOND year in a row. The brand turned up a perfect score with five stars for performance, features & functionality, value for money, battery & charging performance, design, and overall satisfaction.
Brushing your teeth is not only good for your oral hygiene but also for your confidence. How you go about scrubbing those pearly whites can impact how brightly you smile, and how good you feel about yourself. And like many other things in the 21st century, the once humble toothbrush has undergone a technological upgrade, with a wide variety of electric toothbrushes now readily available to purchase. So, getting a great clean time after time has never been easier. To help you find the best electric toothbrush and keep you smiling, Canstar Blue has compared the top electric toothbrush brands on the market.
Canstar Blue surveyed 979 Australians for their feedback on the electric toothbrush brand(s) they’ve purchased and used in the last three years.
Respondents rate their satisfaction with their electric toothbrush brand(s) from zero to ten, where zero is extremely dissatisfied and ten is extremely satisfied. Brand satisfaction was rated by respondents on the following criteria:
The winning brand is the one that receives the highest Overall satisfaction rating once all the scores from the Overall satisfaction criteria are combined and averaged.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included, so not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The brands rated in this survey are listed below in order of best overall satisfaction.
Philips Sonicare earned a sparkling five stars across the board, including for performance, features and functionality, value for money, battery and charging performance, design, and overall satisfaction. Oral-B (Braun) was the only other brand to receive five stars, scoring well for value for money.
Find more detailed information on our ratings methodology.
Not sure which electric toothbrush to buy? Check out our buying guide below.
Philips Sonicare earned a shining win, scoring five stars for performance, features and functionality, value for money, battery and charging performance, design, and overall satisfaction.
A Dutch brand with appliances for all rooms of the house, Philips provides a number of electric toothbrushes for Aussies to pick from, including the modestly named DiamonClean Prestige 9900, DiamondClean 9000, DiamondClean Smart, ProtectiveClean, ExpertClean, 3000 Series, 2000 Series, and Sonicare For Kids ranges.
The ‘DiamondClean’ Smart electric toothbrush even comes with a Bluetooth-compatible app, giving you real-time feedback on your brushing technique for an optimal clean, and notifies you of any areas that you may have missed with the location sensor. It includes a variety of settings, including gum and tongue care, and whitening for a total mouth clean. Other features available within the range include polish mode, a charging glass, travel cases, and reminders to let you know when it’s time to replace your brush heads. Prices usually start from $69.95 for the toothbrushes from the 2000 Series and go up to $619 for the DiamondClean 9000 Sonic Electric Toothbrush.
Braun brand Oral-B earned five stars for value for money, and four stars in every other category including performance, features and functionality, battery and charging performance, design, and overall satisfaction.
One of the most recognisable brands in the dental industry, Oral-B offers plenty of products for all parts of your mouth, including whitening strips, toothpaste, and floss. Its electric toothbrush range is one of the largest around, offering a variety of options to suit different needs and budgets.
For its top-of-the-line electric toothbrush, Oral-B is stated to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help you get the most out of brushing your teeth. The Genius AI range is claimed to be programmed to ‘learn’ your brushing style, in order to track your progress and give feedback via your smartphone. It also offers ‘personal coaching’ to make sure you correctly clean each area, plus a gum pressure control function that sends an alert and reduces the brush speed whenever you’re pressing too hard on the gums. According to the brand, you can apparently get more than two weeks’ worth of brushing with a single charge. Oral-B’s electric toothbrushes will generally set you back between $50 and $400, depending on the retailer and model.
Colgate received four stars for value for money, and three stars in every other category. This included performance, features and functionality, battery and charging performance, design, and overall satisfaction.
Another heavyweight of the dental care industry, Colgate is one of the more affordable ranges within the market, with the majority of its electric toothbrushes costing between $30 and $70.
For people with sensitive teeth and gums, there’s the Colgate ProClinical 500R Sensitive Electric Toothbrush which is designed to provide a gentle and deep clean. Colgate also offers the ProClinical 500R Whitening Electric Toothbrush, which removes surface stains to help you achieve a whiter smile. The range additionally includes the ProClinical 250R Deep Clean Electric Toothbrush, which has a two-minute quadrant pacer to ensure you’re brushing for the recommended two minutes each session, plus spiral bristles to polish teeth and a tongue and cheek cleaner to remove odour-causing bacteria.
Not all electric toothbrush brands in the market qualify for our ratings (based on minimum survey sample size), but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth considering. Here are several more brands to check out before making a purchase decision.
To find the toothbrush that will make your morning, check out our buying guide. It gives you handy information like how electric toothbrushes work, how often you should change the heads, a comparison with manual toothbrushes, and more.
Apart from finding out which brand Aussies love most, our review also identified what consumers consider the most important when choosing which electric toothbrush to buy:
Traditional electric toothbrushes have rotating brush heads but they don’t rotate in complete circles. They make partial rotations back and forth, so you can get that scrubbing motion at a speed far faster than the human hand can accomplish using a manual toothbrush.
‘Sonic toothbrushes’ vibrate faster and differently. The whole head vibrates rather than just the top part of the brush. And according to manufacturers, the faster vibration speed – when combined with lots of fluid around the mouth – forms tiny bubbles between the toothbrush and teeth to better shift plaque.
Toothbrush brands Philips, Oral-B and Colgate – in addition to the American Dental Association – recommend that toothbrush heads (as well as manual toothbrushes) should be replaced every three months, or when the bristles begin to fray. Oral-B highlights that it’s best to change the head if you have recently come down with an illness, as the bacteria may still be present on the bristles.
When asked how often they change their brush heads, around 40% of Canstar Blue’s survey respondents said they change them every few months. About one in four (23%) replace the brush head monthly, while just 3% were leaving it for a year or longer.
One of the biggest ongoing expenses of an electric toothbrush is replacing the brush heads, which can set you back between $10 and $30 depending on the brand, pack size, and retailer.
Why do people use electric toothbrushes? More than half of respondents to our survey (58%) said their main reason for using electric toothbrushes is for a superior clean. Nearly a third (27%) said they were advised by a dental professional to use an electric toothbrush, while 12% were simply curious to try. So, do electric toothbrushes really deliver healthier cleaning results?
Your specific dental advice could vary, but the Australian Society of Orthodontists says that you’re not missing out by only using a manual toothbrush, assuming good brushing technique. Electric brushes can, however, make brushing easier – and perhaps more pleasant – which is why many choose to go electric. But with a little effort, you can achieve the same results with a manual toothbrush.
Our survey results suggest that those who do choose to buy electric, they’re are quite happy with their choice and intend to stick with it. Two-fifths of Aussies we surveyed (39%) said they’ll never go back to a normal toothbrush.
Philips Sonicare has topped our electric toothbrush ratings for the second year in a row, continuing to deliver on the key categories Aussies expect. Oral-B (Braun) has also performed well in our reviews, receiving four stars in almost every category. However, with lots of different options out there, it’s important to do your research and choose a brand that ticks all your boxes.
While budget does have an impact on the product you buy, electric toothbrushes typically last for quite some time, so it would be wise to choose one that you’ll want to use for years to come. Within each brand, there are plenty of options depending on the features you’re after. And be sure to compare the price of replacement heads because the costs can certainly add up over time.
Remember, you only get one set of adult teeth – so take good care of them! Whether you buy an electric toothbrush or prefer to keep it manual, the key to dental hygiene is regular and thorough brushing.
Megan is Canstar Blue’s Home & Lifestyle Editor, leading the team that focuses on consumer products and services, ranging from supermarkets and groceries to home and personal appliances and retail stores. She interprets Canstar Blue’s bespoke research on the thousands of brands that we compare, rate and review, to help shoppers make better purchasing decisions.
Samantha Howse is Canstar Blue’s Consumer Research Specialist, coordinating the consumer research program behind our customer satisfaction awards across Canstar and Canstar Blue in Australia and New Zealand. Sam has earned a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) from Griffith University and, with seven years in market research and 2 years in marketing, she is experienced in survey design, implementation and analysis, coupled with an understanding of marketing principles and best practice.
Picture credits: Vilgun/Shutterstock.com, Artsplav/Shutterstock.com, Lazy_Bear/Shutterstock.com.
Here are the past winners from Canstar Blue’s electric toothbrush ratings:
• 2021: Philips Sonicare
• 2020: Oral-B
• 2019: Philips Sonicare
• 2018: Oral-B
• 2017: Oral-B
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