I tried the Philips Sonicare toothbrush and, to my surprise, it has become one of my most beloved possessions. Let me explain: I’ve never been someone who enjoys oral hygiene. I’d probably rank it at the bottom of my “favorite things to do” list if it wasn’t for the obvious health benefits. As a child, I dreaded going to the dentist, dental floss was Enemy No. 1, and I stubbornly refused to brush my teeth twice a day (because IMHO once was totally enough). Even in my adult years, I always did just enough to have a nice smile and no cavities, but I never truly invested in the health of my teeth—until now.
Here’s how it all went down. I was scheduled to test what felt like hundreds of beauty products and one of them was the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart 9500. At first glance, it looked super luxurious, but way too high maintenance for my taste. Still, I was curious and ended up taking it home and testing it out that night. As time crept on that evening, my anticipation kept building and I couldn’t wait until my normal wind-down routine started to try it. I tore open the box, found that it was (thankfully) fully-charged, ignored the directions, and put it to the test.
Can I just say, wow. The Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart is like the Superman of all toothbrushes. Instead of rotating like a traditional electric brush, it uses pulses and brushstrokes to clean in between the teeth and along the gum line all at the same time. It makes a whopping 62,000 brush movements per minute which resulted in my teeth feeling squeaky clean after a two-minute brush. The best way to describe it is how I feel when leaving a professional dental cleaning. You know when you run your tongue along the front of your teeth and it feels as smooth as a baby’s bum? Yep, that’s how it felt. And since my dental office won’t be open in the foreseeable future, I’m even more thankful I can achieve professional-feeling results in the comfort of my own bathroom. (It doesn’t hurt that I don’t have to worry about tools resembling a Pirate’s hook coming towards my mouth, either.)
The Philips Sonicare has five cleaning modes—clean, whiten, gum health, deep clean, and tongue care—and each mode has three levels of intensity that you can adjust while you brush. It’s truly a personalized clean. My go-to setting is the standard clean unless my mouth is feeling especially yucky, then I’ll switch to the deep clean. In the beginning, I gave the whitening mode a try and found that it was a bit aggressive on my gums so I’ll only use that mode for my front four teeth if they need a touch-up.
