Best electric toothbrush 2023: Sonicare, Oral-B and more

The iO Series 6 (AKA the iO6) is a mid-range brush in the iO range from Oral-B and we reckon it’s the best value of the series. It has a monochrome rather than a colour screen and instead of a magnetic charging puck, it comes with a standard two-pin charger. That does mean you miss out on fast charging, however.

But for a less wallet-beating price, you’ll still get the top-notch iO cleaning performance, a choice of brushing modes, pressure sensor and timer, as well as genuinely good brushing guidance from the accompanying app. 

One note on the price: there are regular deals on this brush, so if you bide your time, you should be able to avoid paying the full RRP.  

The DiamondClean 9000 is extremely well made, with a minimalist look. It’s also one of the best brushes around for cleaning performance. It’s powerful and provides a number of different brushing options and intensities: it’s one of the few brushes that lets you choose a cleaning mode and then allows you to make the vibrations stronger or softer.

In terms of features, it has a pressure sensor on the handle, as well as a timer to let you know when to move between sections of your mouth and when you’ve reached the end of the recommended brushing period.

Accessories-wise, it comes with a charging puck for a two-pin bathroom plug and a sleek travel case with a concealed USB lead.

It’s app-connected and, while the app can help you to keep your brushing schedule organised (keeping track of your brushing routine, scheduling dental appointments and re-ordering brush heads), it won’t offer advice on improving your technique. 

If you worry about waste and plastic but still want a high-quality electric toothbrush, Suri is an excellent option. Its brush heads and bristles are made from caster oil and corn starch and you can return them to the manufacturer for recycling. Its handle is aluminium and is made to be repairable.

It’s a sonic brush that delivers 33,000 vibrations per minute and has an IPX7 waterproof rating, so you can take it into the shower if you want. It’s not noisy and it’s very pleasant to use and feels effective. It comes with a handy wall mount and USB charging stand with four-hour fast charging – both features we liked a lot. But it’s the 40 day battery life that is its most impressive feature.

There are a couple of compromises to be made: it doesn’t have a pressure sensor, so it’s not a good choice if you need a reminder not to brush too hard, and it has just two brushing modes – everyday clean and polish.

There’s one other thing to consider. Replacement brush heads aren’t the most budget friendly at $17.50/ £14.40, but it’s understandable, given that they’re not plastic.

The iO8 is one of the best luxury buys around as has just about every feature you could want but at a slightly more reasonable price point than the iO9 or the iO10.

It has a full-colour screen that greets you, times your brushing session and lets you choose from one of six brushing modes. It has a pressure sensor that glows green when you get it right and red when you press too hard. Opening the app lets you change the brush’s settings, access your brushing stats and get real-time brushing feedback.

It’s not flawless though. You’ll be lucky to get two weeks from the battery life (we never managed this in our test) and there’s no USB charing option. However, it’s three hour fast charging time does somewhat mitigate this.

The Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 6100 is a toothbrush built and designed for people who are happy to spend a decent amount of money on a top of the line brush, but aren’t sold on the need for connected features and app support.

So it won’t connect to your phone, but it’ll do just about everything else, with three brushing modes and another three intensity settings, which pair with the new BrushSync tech so that the brush will automatically adjust to the optimum setting for any given brush head.

It’ll also use the same technology to give an assessment based on your usage of when it’s time to swap to a new brush head.

Beyond that, the design is slick and modern, there’s a good choice of colours and brush heads available, and it comes with a sturdy travel case. Plus the battery life actually exceeds Philips‘ claim of 14 days – ours ran for over three weeks before it ran out of juice.

Smart toothbrushes tend to over-promise and under-deliver, and to some extent the same is true with the Genius X. To bill this as AI-driven is really pushing it, especially since it doesn’t learn as it goes.

Still, tracking is pretty accurate, with feedback at the end that really is useful – all in the sort of premium package you’d expect from a brush at this level. We just wish that syncing the brush to the app was easier, and that there was better support for couples or families sharing the same brush handle.

The average user may well stop using the smart features eventually anyway – but even if you do, you’re still getting a top quality electric brush with a range of options and modes.

A combination of Japanese technology and German design, the ION-Sei certainly looks good. There are two colour options but we reckon that Lake Blue is the more striking. Still, either will make a stylish addition to your bathroom.

Fashion is, of course, secondary to actual teeth cleaning and it’s here that the innovation lies. Unlike other sonic toothbrushes, this one generates a stream of ions and a weak electric charge which aims to stop bacteria growing in your mouth. 

You pay a steep price for the tech: not only is the ION-Sei expensive but it doesn’t come with a travel case. It also lacks features you’d expect to see on a high-end brush, such as pressure detection and a head-replacement indication.

It is rechargeable via USB though, which is handy.

If you want an iO but are looking for a budget-friendly model (relatively speaking), the iO4 is our pick for having the best feature set for its price point. As well as the iO signature cleaning performance, it has four brushing modes, a red/green pressure sensor and a vibration timer.

There’s one oddity though. There’s no way to tell on the handle itself which brushing mode you’re in (unless you can tell by the change of vibrations alone), so you’ll need to use the app to set it up.

Of the other less pricey models you might want to consider, at this stage the iO3 is only available in the US and the iO5 is not as good value in the UK, but those in the US might find that it’s a better deal.

For a relatively wallet-friendly price, the Pro 3000 will provide everything you need in an electric toothbrush. It’s not available in the US, but the equivalent model is the Smart 1500 ($49.99).

Most importantly, its cleaning performance is very good. It also has all the features that are really important. Its timer will alert you to move on to a new section of your mouth every 30 seconds and let you know when your two-minute brushing time has expired.

It also has a bright red pressure sensor that illuminates when you press too hard.

The only real design flaw is that its shiny on/off button can get a bit slippery when wet and you’ll have to press it hard to switch it off without scrolling through its other brushing modes.

There’s no USB charging option but the two-week battery life means that it should last you through a holiday, although by the time the battery warning light comes on, the brush’s operation will start to slow down.

We were impressed with the Oral-B Genius 8000 and 9000 for many reasons: excellent plaque cleaning, comfortable brush and handle, brush-head options, travel case, and long battery life. 

However, we found the app’s functionality didn’t live up to its promise. The Position Detection is a great idea, but we found it tricky to get right. When used just to advise and monitor mouth-quadrant brushing it was more successful but not as sophisticated as it thinks it is.

But as a premium electric toothbrush both the Genius 8000 and 9000 certainly live up to the hype. Neither is cheap but compared to the cost of a visit to the dentist, using a quality toothbrush is a wise financial decision as well as a healthy one.