Sonicare Elite 7300

Seeing that my family, including my reluctant sister, had brought over $350 dollars worth of dental gear on vacation, I asked them what was going on. My sister said with the Sonicare, "your teeth feel like you just them cleaned at the dentist". We get along pretty good in my family, but we're not close enough to try out each other's toothbrushes. So I decided hop on the bandwagon and buy my own Sonicare toothbrush when I got back home to LA.

Since I was going to be sticking a vibrating electronic device inside my mouth, I gave the manual a read before I used the toothbrush; the manual was fairly good at explaining what to expect and how to work the toothbrush. The Sonicare only has one important button, the brush my teeth now button. Just push the button and the Sonicare will start humming.

The manual provides two beginner's warnings: 1) don't start the toothbrush unless it is in your mouth otherwise it will shoot toothpaste everywhere; 2) at the beginning, the ultrafast vibrations of the toothbrush might tickle a little. They should add a third beginner's warning: 3) when it starts to tickle, be sure to turn the toothbrush off if you need to take it out of your mouth to laugh. Alas, the first time I tried it, the machine tickled me enough to laugh, whereupon I pulled the toothbrush out of my mouth, and the super-vibrations shot toothpaste all over my bathroom mirror. I also bumped my teeth a couple times with the vibrating plastic handle, because I wasn't good at maneuvering the vibrating toothbrush around my mouth yet.

After the first attempt, I wasn't sure the Sonicare was right for me. I didn't like being tickled, and I really didn't like the slightly jarring feeling of bumping the vibrating brush handle on my teeth. However, my teeth did feel pretty darn clean and I'd dropped $180 on the toothbrush, so I decided to keep using it.

What I don't like

Since I share my Sonicare brush with my girlfriend, the toothbrush gets twice the work. Despite this I still think the battery runs down pretty quick; we get about five days of brushing out of a full charge. I've also read that the battery tends to stop working after around two years of use, since I've only had my brush for a couple months, I can't comment on that (except to say I hope mine lasts longer than two years!).

As far as brushing goes, the tickling goes away after a week or so. And although you get better at maneuvering the brush over time, you still will bump the vibrating plastic toothbrush handle on your mouth everyone in awhile. Unlike the tickling, I don't seem to be getting used to having my teeth vibrated. It's not painfully, just annoying. One final caveat I have with the brush is that it's not the best brush for a quicky brush. I like to quickly brush my teeth after meals. With the Sonicare, you feel more obligated to brush the full two minutes, so it's hard to be fast (though you can stop the brushing at anytime by pressing the start/stop button).

Final thoughts

Yes, over 150 bucks is a lot of money to spend on a toothbrush. But then again, I only have one set of teeth. To me the toothbrush has been well worth the money. I no longer have to wait six months for my next teeth cleaning at the dentist to have slippery smooth, clean teeth. As long as this brush lasts a year or two, I'll certainly buy another Sonicare toothbrush when my current Sonicare breaks.

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