Everything I'd hoped for
About a year ago my parents sent me an electric toothbrush (<$20) because they were impressed with new ones that had recently tried. I was favorably impressed with the cleaning, but found that replacing the batteries always resulted in the waterproof seal being damaged and the batteries would flood. I went through about 4 of them, with at least a couple different types, and the story was always the same. Occasionally the heads would work their way apart too, even though they were within their regular use period. You have 2 types to choose from if you step up in quality: Oral-B (with the round spinning heads) and Philips (with the more traditional up and down stroke head). My personal preference is the Philips type of head. After much research, I found that the older Philips models, with the much bigger base to the replaceable brush end, were getting reports of significant material (toothpaste, saliva, etc.) remaining under the bigger base. For this reason I chose the least expensive of the smaller head toothbrushes, the Easy Clean, which had reviews as high as their most expensive models. Cleaning under the head is very easy, as I imagine it would be under the larger heads, but there is simply very little there to clean. The brush heads do a great job, and i have no doubt my teeth have never been cleaner. The design allows me to reach anywhere in my mouth, and after a little getting used to it, I am fine with the 'quadrant' system it uses. This way, you brush upper or bottom, left or right teeth for 30 seconds, then the toothbrush gives a slight beep, encouraging you to move to the next quadrant. In 2 minutes, you are done and it shuts off. This forces you to focus on exactly where you are brushing, to make sure you don't 'run out of time'. I used to brush longer, but now with the stroke speed and the strict timing, my teeth are much cleaner in a guaranteed 2 minutes. Of course you could turn the brush on again, but if you pay attention, there is no need to to do this. Since stroke speed is very fast, there apparently is an initial 14 day break in period, whereby the brush moves slower to start, but increases in speed over each of those uses. This can be reset if ever needed. I didn't really notice this change over time, but I guess that is part of the intent. The charging base is miniscule, with a simple structure, but very effective and requires virtually no effort to insert the toothbrush. The toothbrush itself is not cheap, but is well priced through Amazon. The individual heads are quite pricey $8-$10 each, but can be bought in packs of 2-4 to save a little bit. If this cost were to drop somewhat, I'm sure the number of users would increase dramatically. Great product that exceeded my expectations! I wish I had bought one years earlier, and probably would have if the cost wasn't such an issue. Read more