I would rather do almost anything than go to the dentist, and the last time I had my teeth cleaned, my dentist recommended that I invest in a Sonicare Electric Toothbrush. After I found out how expensive these were, I didn't give it much more thought, but rather used the battery operated toothbrush that the hygenist sent me home with.

Several months later I was fortunate enough to get a free Sonicare Flexcare Professional Model toothbrush, with a UV Sanitizer, which was a promotional offer from BzzAgent. I was thrilled, especially when I saw that these cost as much as $180!

Description

The Sonicare Fkexcare comes in a box, which says it's a better choice for cleaning teeth than the Sonicare Elite and the Oral-B Triumph. It contains several items, such as a charger base, one pro results toothbrush with three color code rings (to help identify who's toothbrush head is who's), a Flexcare wand, a UV sanitizer with charger, a travel case, travel charger, and a travel cap.

Why It's Better

The unit has a flashing light that lets you know when it's charging, and there is a light on the wand that shows how much life is left in the battery. If there are three green lights showing you have 75-100% power remaining, and two green lights assure you that it has 50-74% of life left. When it gets down to one green light, you are getting low, having 25-49% power, and finally the yellow light comes on to let you know less than 25% is left. When it needs to be recharged the unit will beep several times.

I never let the battery get low, as I place the wand on the base after every use. If you let it run low, it can take 24 hours to recharge, and I didn't want to be without my toothbrush for that long, so I use the charger on a daily basis. The wand actually has a soft grip handle.

The small round brush heads do clean well, but the sensation they give took some getting used to, and you have to be careful not to spray toothpaste around the room! This unit actually has a means to allow you to personalize your toothbrushing routine. There are different modes that you can choose with a simple push of a button, and you can also time your brushing for 2 minutes. This would be handy if you are timing your child while brushing their teeth, no more hour glass timers in the bathroom! It has three modes: clean, sensitive, and massage. You can also press the Personalized Brushing button to toggle between modes and routines.

There is a Go Care Routine which has a 1 minute brushing cycle in the quick clean mode, and the "Quadpacer" will signal every fifteen seconds. This allows you to move on to another area of the mouth, assuring you are getting to all the teeth. The Max Care Routine is a 3 minute brushing cycle, combining both the Clean and Massage modes in one.

The manual claims that using this toothbrush can help whiten the teeth, (it says it whitens teeth by 2 1/2 shades in as little as two weeks), but although I thought I had noticed a slight improvement at first, it hasn't really amounted to much and hasn't sustained itself at all.

The nicest feature with this model is the UV sanitizer. We always are sure to replace our manual toothbrushes after we've been ill, but there is no worries with this model. There is a small compartment that opens up with a knob to hold the brush head, and a UV light comes on, which cleans 99% of germs, bacteria and viruses. Replacement bulbs can be ordered through Sonicare Customer Service.

Using this toothbrush did take some getting used to, but I definitely feel it cleans my teeth better than an manual brush. My dentist also says that my gums are healthier since I've been using it (which has been for almost a year now).

The unit comes with a two year warranty. I've since spoken to other friends who also have this Sonicare Flexcare, and they also report more positive check ups at their dentist every year. If you can afford this system, I think it is money well spent.