Oral-B Professional Care Smart Series 5000 Product Review

The Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000 with Smart Guide is the first electric toothbrush I've ever owned, and I don't think I could go back to regular brushes. Although it's not perfect, this Oral B electric toothbrush does live up to all the promises on the box. I recommend this electric toothbrush, especially to those who have, like me, struggled with cavities and gum disease. Below, I've listed my opinion of the pros and cons of the Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000.

Pros

Clean Feeling
After brushing with the Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000, my teeth do feel substantially cleaner than after brushing with a regular toothbrush. This is the first electric toothbrush I've owned, so I am unable to compare it with other electric toothbrushes, but compared to a regular toothbrush, the Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000 is a highly superior product that gives a substantially better cleaning. If you brush too hard, the SmartGuide will notify you. I've also found that I use a lot less toothpaste with the Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000.

Timing
The Smart Guide starts timing when you start the toothbrush, and times 30 seconds for each quadrant of the mouth. A digital circle on the Smart Guide fills in a quadrant each time it's time to change, and a pleasant smiley face fills the circle when two minutes has passed. In addition, the toothbrush itself pauses at the end of each 30 seconds to signal that it is time to move on to the next quadrant.

Brush Heads
Although I have only used the "Floss Action" brush head, the Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000 comes with a "Pro White" brush head and a "Sensitive" brush head with softer bristles. The Floss Action brush head can actually signal to the Smart Guide when it is time to replace it. Like most people, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my toothbrush, so having an electronic signal rather than just fading color on the bristles is more likely to get me to change the brush.

Settings
The Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000 has several settings to choose from. "Daily Clean" is the fastest, "Sensitive" is a little slower, "Whitening" has more of a pulse, and "Massage" repeatedly speeds up and slows down. "Deep Clean" seems the same as Daily Clean to me, but probably has some subtle difference. You change the setting by pushing the triangular button on the electric toothbrush, and the current setting is indicated on the Smart Guide with pictures. The toothbrush itself also has a battery display that tells you how charged the brush is.

Cons

Efficiency
Although I like the features of the Smart Guide, a more efficient product design might have been to have the timer directly in the toothbrush instead of having a separate piece. Since the toothbrush signals when it is time to move on or stop brushing, I hardly look at the Smart Guide anyway. Also, because of the wireless radio signals required to operate the Smart Guide, multiple toothbrushes in the same household need to be synchronized, and radio transmissions need to be deactivated if taking the toothbrush into a hospital or airplane.

Charge
The Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000 takes a while to charge the first time you use it. Just be aware of this when you take yours out of the package and set it up. It takes about 15 minutes to charge enough to brush your teeth for 2 minutes, and takes up to 10 hours to fully charge. If you are able to keep the toothbrush charger plugged in all the time, the charge isn't much of a problem. If you can't always have it plugged in, just note that it loses charge fairly quickly.

User Friendliness
Since this is the first electric toothbrush I've owned, I relied on the instruction booklet to lead me through this foreign territory of assembly and settings. I found the instruction book to be frustrating. I eventually figured most of it out on my own. The battery cover on the Smart Guide was extremely difficult to remove. Although overall this electric toothbrush is fairly user friendly, those two components of the Oral B Professional Care Smart Series are not user friendly, and almost prevented my using the toothbrush after taking it out of the box. They are not, however, stumbling blocks that should stop you from buying the product. But if you are technologically challenged, be sure to have someone else around who can help you figure things out.

Rattling
The Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000 pulsates at a rate up to 40,000 pulsations and 8,800 oscillations per minute, which can be a little scary if you're not used to having an electric toothbrush. Although I got used to it after a couple days, the vibrations of the electric toothbrush rattle my jaw a little and irritate the inside of my cheeks. I usually use the sensitive setting, which makes it a little more comfortable.

Overall, I am impressed with the Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000 and would recommend it to anyone shopping for an electric toothbrush. This product retails for up to $160 (now $120), but since I struggle with dental problems, I feel confident I will be saving money on future dentist bills thanks to the Oral B Professional Care Smart Series 5000. In that way, it almost pays for itself. Through the Oral B Web site, you can also get a $15 refund on your next dentists visit (until June 2010).