I’ve been brushing my teeth with a manual brush all my life. About a year ago, all the ads with the new affordable battery-operated toothbrushes finally got to me.

For the record, I’ve tried Oral-B PowerMax, Oral-B PowerMax Advanced and Crest Complete battery-operated brushes in the course of the year.

Crest “died” pretty quickly. It still kept working but even with the new replacement heads and new batteries it just plain SUCKED at brushing. It almost felt like a manual brush did a better job (I was forced to switch to manual because I just couldn’t stand Crest).I had a pretty good experience with the 2 cheapo Oral-B’s and I have to say, even for cheap brushes they’re quite good, especially when compared to Crest.

I can’t say anything about Colgate except this: I turned one on at a store to see the rotation, sound and feel of it, and put it back immediately. Right down there with Crest in my book.

In my vanity quest… ok, it’s for health more than for beauty…, I decided to upgrade to a nicer power brush

After some research, plus based on my own experience and on what my dentist told me, I was only considering these 3:

• Sonicare
• ORAL-B Sonic Complete
• ORAL-B 3-D Excel

Sonicare turned out to be quite bulky, slightly noisier than Sonic Complete, and replacement heads are 40% more expensive than any for ORAL-B.

ORAL-B Sonic Complete is quiet, with a “sonic” kind of sound, almost like an insect, moves super fast, has 2 and 3-mode models. Really had nothing against this one and it was a very strong contender. All research has only good things to say, and it’s convenient to hold esp. if you compare to the big Sonicare. I was set on Sonic Complete until I came across a sale for…

ORAL-B 3-D Excel
Instead of the regular $100 it was on sale for $69 (Canadian!). It’s the same price like on Amazon as of now (Dec 25, 04).
Seeing a deal this good, I wanted to see if the brush was any good! Of course, I read up on these brushes on Amazon. At Amazon the ratings for Oral-B and Sonicare are about equal. Read some other stuff.
I went back to the store a couple of times to see the brushes in operation. Since you can’t really go to a store and try out all the brushes on your own teeth, you can just judge whether you like the size, the sound and if you believe it’s any good
I believe this brush has an advantage compared to Sonic Complete – it’s the small head. Of course you can get larger “dual action” standard size replacement heads for the 3-D Excel, but I like the small round one, cause I feel like the action is more concentrated, it allows me to clean each separate tooth more thoroughly.

FINAL NOTES
I like that Oral-B is made in Germany. It’s really, truly well-made. I’m a sucker for German gadgets (writing another review on one). The point of course is not how well it’s made even though it’s important, but whether it works or not.
In the first 3 days I’ve noticed the following improvements:
My teeth really feel clean even if I brush and then eat. It seems they’re so much better polished that plaque doesn’t stick to them as much.

If I brush and don’t eat for a few hours (sleeping doesn’t count), I don’t get a nasty taste and feel in the mouth. It stays clean and fresh!

Tiny little stain on my 4th front tooth is starting to disappear. No amount of scrubbing with baking soda seemed to help, but the brush is so far helping.

Other notes:
The brush is made so water and paste shouldn’t get into it, but I still wipe it dry with a towel after use – just in case… cause I like it so much

Expect drooling with this brush! It’s hard to close your mouth while brushing without knocking teeth
If you’re used to brushing with a lot of toothpaste, instead of squeezing it on the brush head, just smear it all over your teeth, cause you just can’t fit in that much paste on the small round head, and really, you don’t need to use that much.

Since I originally published this review, a multitude of newer and better brushes were invented. I have switched to Oral-B Sonic Complete in May 2006. It’s been amazing, should’ve bought it the first time around! It’s much gentler on the gums than the rotary brushes.