Electric toothbrushes

by Chris Woodford. Last updated: May 13, 2011.

Do your friends reach for the sunglasses when you smile? If not, maybe it's time you invested in an electric toothbrush. These battery powered teeth scrubbers move their heads back and forth up to 7000 times a minute, shifting twice as much plaque (rotting, sugary food debris) as ordinary, manual toothbrushes. That's called good oral hygiene and it means you won't have to go to the dentist quite so often. The cleaner you keep your teeth (and the gums that support them), the longer they'll last you. Just remember, once your adult teeth are gone, you don't get replacements! Ever wondered how an electric toothbrush works? Let's take a closer look!

Photo: Use it properly, and a sonic toothbrush like this can get your teeth cleaner than a manual toothbrush—or an ordinary electric one.

What's inside an electric toothbrush?

Take an old electric toothbrush apart and it's easy to see how it works. I had one that didn't work anymore, so I had a quick look inside before taking it to the recycling center. Here's what I found:

Photo showing component parts of an electronic toothbrush taken to pieces

The first thing you notice is the removable brush. This is the bit that does all the hard work. It has a semi-rotating head at the top so, as the mechanism inside the brush handle rotates back and forth the brush turns from side to side. Directly underneath the brush there's a cam and gear unit, which looks like this:

How the cam unit in an electric toothbrush works

The cam and gear unit is the clever part of an electric toothbrush. It converts the high-speed rotary (spinning) motion of the brush's electric motor into reciprocating (back-and-forth) brushing motion that cleans your teeth more effectively. The cam and gear works a bit like this very simplified animation. The green wheel, driven by the motor, is always rotating clockwise at high speed, but the black lever is pivoted on rubber. So, as the green wheel turns, the black lever pulls first one way and then the other, moving the brush up and down.

How the cam unit in an electric toothbrush works

(You can read more about cams in our article on cranks and cams.)

The cam and gear unit is connected to a gear built into the top of the motor, so the motor drives it directly. Underneath the motor, there's a rechargeable battery. Attached to the inner plastic case, there's a simple electric circuit board that controls the on/off switch on the outer case. The outer case is made of tough plastic and the on-off switch is set into it in a piece of thin, very flexible rubber. The purpose of the outer case is to keep water and toothpaste away from the circuit, motor, and battery—which would quickly rust if you got them wet. (If you're curious to know how an electric toothbrush can recharge itself standing on a plastic base, take a look at our article on induction chargers.) And that's pretty much all there is to it—a bit of clever, effective engineering technology that keeps your teeth in tip-top shape!

What's the difference between a sonic toothbrush and an ordinary electric one?

Sonic and ordinary electric toothbrush side by side

Sonic toothbrushes work just like ordinary ones: they move back and forth over the surface of your teeth at high speed, scrubbing away the plaque. But they also have an extra cleaning action that makes them more effective. As we saw up above, in a normal electric toothbrush, the very top part of the brush rotates back and forth thanks to a little cam unit just above the motor. The rest of the brush head is stationary. You can see a conventional electric brush head (actually a special one designed for cleaning the spaces in between your teeth) in the top of this photo. The removable brush head contains a little spring mechanism that lets the brush part turn back and forth, but the rest of the head remains static.

A sonic toothbrush buzzes over your teeth at much higher speed than a normal electric toothbrush, not only brushing away the plaque but also creating waves of turbulence in the toothpaste and water in your mouth. Tiny bubbles form in the space between the toothbrush and the teeth, and these help to shift more plaque than brushing alone. So, when you're using a sonic toothbrush, it helps if you have quite a bit of fluid near your toothbrush. Then you can actually feel an energetic sensation around your teeth as the pressure waves created by the brush do their work!

The head from a sonic toothbrush (seen in the lower part of the photo) is just like an ordinary manual toothbrush. Unlike a standard electric toothbrush, it doesn't contain a rotating mechanism. The whole brush head vibrates—and this can make sonic toothbrushes a little more tricky to use at first.

This article from Animated Teeth tells you more about how sonic toothbrushes work.

Do sonic toothbrushes work and are they worth paying for?

Don't trust the "customer reviews" expressed on websites selling electric toothbrushes. It looks to me like quite a few of these are submitted by people who work for the toothbrush makers! I've tried normal brushes, electric brushes, and sonic ones. Electric brushes get your teeth far cleaner than normal ones, and I definitely prefer my sonic brush. But I suspect it's a matter of preference. My own opinion, for what it's worth, is that if you use an ordinary electric brush properly, and floss your teeth as well, there's not a great deal of benefit to be gained from going sonic, especially given the considerable extra cost of a sonic brush. But if you can afford it, give it a go.