Mouth Care with Sensory Sensitivities: An Electric Toothbrush Comparison

Today we'll discuss oral hygiene, how sensory sensitivities factor in, and compare two electric toothbrushes side-by-side.  

Oral hygiene is a basic part of personal hygiene, which is important for being presentable to people, especially neurotypical people.  If your breath smells bad, people won't want to be near you or speak to you, because they can smell it and can get grossed out by it.  Brushing your teeth, and also your tongue and mouth, combats bad breath.  It also fights tooth decay by decimating the responsible bacteria.  

The problem with all this is that brushing your teeth can be a really unpleasant sensory experience.  Having bristles scraping against your gums and teeth can be torturous for people with touch sensitivities.  Especially if you go the extra step and invest in an electric toothbrush, which does a much better job than manually brushing.  The electric toothbrush vibrates in addition to your brushing, which polishes your teeth and under your gums much more effectively... but now you're pressing a buzzing object to your gums in addition to the brushing sensations!

Essentially, oral hygiene can be a really unpleasant nightmare for people with sensory sensitivities.  A nightmare that has to be repeated daily, or cavities and fillings and crowns and so many expensive trips to the dentist will result.  

The Toothbrushes

Therefore, making the process as painless as possible is important.  One way to do that is to choose your toothbrush carefully.  Our two toothbrushes are below:

On the left side, my spouse's Phillips Sonicare toothbrush.  His is a basic model, but the company is well established in the electric toothbrush market.  I've borrowed this toothbrush and used separate toothbrush heads for a couple years now.  With it, I've stopped having any cavities whatsoever in my teeth.  

This is particular impressive because it's despite: A) I'm sometimes unable to make myself do any toothcare at all for an entire week (thanks to depression and sensory sensitivities) B) I have bad genes (my dad has had many cavities despite brushing and flossing religiously, and I have had some problems as well), and C) I eat way too much sugar overall, which heftily accelerates how quickly your teeth decay.  

On the right is a Quip toothbrush, a relatively new arrival on the mouth care scene.  The toothbrush is actually only one piece of their oral health recommendations, which include letting you do a subscription plan to have new toothbrush heads and toothpaste sent to you every 3 months.  Other than floss, it's essentially everything you need to care for your whole mouth.  My in-laws generously gifted the Quip toothbrush to me for my birthday, and I've just gotten the chance to try it out, which is what prompted this blog entry.  Thank you!

A third contender, and the other major electric toothbrush company, is OralB. They're notable for having a round toothbrush head rather than a traditional rectangular one. I don't have $50+ to spend on one just to try it. If someone wants to send me one to try out, I'm happy to add it to this review or do a new one.

You'll notice immediately, as I did, that the Quip toothbrush is much smaller.  It's also lighter by a good margin.  What's not obvious from that first picture is that both toothbrushes have detachable heads.  The Quip is simply built more seamlessly.  Below is a picture of the brush heads, along with a manual toothbrush.

As you can see, the Quip toothbrush head comes with a scrubbing surface on the back.  This is actually a feature I'm rather fond of, to the point that I invested in a manual toothbrush like the green one so I could continue to have one available to me.  Having the feature built right into the brush head saves me annoyance, counter space, and money.  

What about the accessories, and the innards?  

As you can see, the Quip disassembles a lot more than the Sonicare does.

The Sonicare has the handle (not meant for the user to be able to take apart), the toothbrush head (with plastic cover), and the charging base.  The Quip breaks down into the toothbrush head, motor, battery, plastic handle, and sliding cover.  The cover fits either end of the toothbrush.  Due to the sticky tape (not shown) on the cover, it serves as both a travel cover and holder.  You can literally just stick it to the counter or to your mirror and put the handle into it for easy access.

The Quip uses a standard AAA battery, whereas the Sonicare uses a rechargeable battery pack.  I have no information on how long each lasts, but I can safely say the Sonicare battery pack has lasted like 5 years.  I suppose one could always use a rechargeable AAA battery in the Quip as well.

I'll be heading out of town for Thanksgiving soon, so another question arises: How do they handle for traveling?

As you can see, the Quip packs into a single unit.  The white plastic cover slides over the brush head and locks into place.  The Sonicare is better packed in two pieces, with the brush head separate from the base.  The brush head then needs to be covered with a clear plastic case.  One of those comes with every toothbrush head, which means a lot of those little plastic cases build up over time.  

And now, most importantly for people with sensory sensitivities: how do they handle?  I got a couple videos of turning them on.  

The Sonicare makes a medium buzzing sound.  When pressed to your mouth, it also buzzes your teeth, gums, and jaw.  Again, this is the toothbrush I used for years.  The experience of using it is not even slightly enjoyable, and I have to shut my eyes and keep anyone from interacting with me while I use it.  This is in part so I can remember to get all parts of my mouth, and in part because the sensory experience is painful and frustrating, and best managed with my full attention.  

The Quip runs a lot quieter, and vibrates my hand a lot less.  This has the added bonus of not making my hand slightly numb after using it.  It does also vibrate the teeth and gums slightly, but not nearly as much as the Sonicare.  This does make me wonder if its cleaning efficacy is as good as the Sonicare, but time alone will tell that.

Another note on using the toothbrushes.  The brush heads my spouse and I use with the Sonicare are "extra soft."  This is because gum erosion is a possibility with the intensity of electric toothbrushes, and the idea of tooth care is to clean the gums, not destroy them.  I don't know what the Quip's brush softness is, but it's definitely not "extra soft."  I'd guess "soft," not "medium," judging by the manual toothbrushes I own.

It makes sense to me that the Quip perhaps makes up for its gentler vibrations by using "soft" rather than "extra soft" bristles, but I have literally no formal education in dentistry, so I'll double-check that idea when I next visit my dentist.

Both toothbrushes run for 2 minutes.  Every 30 seconds, the toothbrushes stop buzzing for a split second, which tells you to move on to the next quadrant of your mouth.  In this manner, you spend half a minute on each quadrant and get a more thorough cleaning.  This is a good feature, which I'm guessing is standard these days.

The Winner

At least for me, Quip wins this comparison hands down.

It's smaller, lighter, has more functionality, is more portable and travel-safe, and most importantly, its vibrations don't upset me nearly as much as the Sonicare toothbrush's do.  With the Quip, I could see myself brushing my teeth twice a day, as the dentist recommends, rather than once a day as I do now.  Once a day has been enough to keep me cavity-free, but if the Quip doesn't clean as vigorously as the Sonicare, then twice a day would definitely be a wise idea (as well as what the doctor ordered...).

I'm also extremely impressed that they designed a toothbrush where every single one of the parts is easily replaceable.  If the Sonicare's motor ever dies, there won't be any option but to replace the whole handle, which is kind of a waste of perfectly serviceable plastic and the rest of the toothbrush.  If the same thing happens with the Quip, I need only buy a new motor.  Or handle.  Or sliding cover.

This strikes me as more environmentally friendly than the Sonicare, though the question of whether the AAA batteries will add up over time is relevant.  You can somewhat offset that by using rechargeable AAA batteries yourself, I expect.  But each toothbrush head with the Sonicare toothbrush comes with a little plastic cover, and I'm fairly certain Quip's refills won't.  So it's at least a tie, given a conscientious consumer, I expect.

I'll start using the Quip instead of my spouse's toothbrush immediately, and try to add an evening brushing into my oral care routine.

If you're interested in checking out the Quip, I saw it at Target recently on an endcap in the tooth care section.  You can also get your first toothbrush from them for only $25 on their website.

Extra: The Rest of My Mouth Care Routine

Like most children, I was taught how to brush my teeth young.  Unlike most children, I continued to have difficulty adopting that routine and sticking to it into my college years.  I can't remember having a specific reason why I didn't like the experience, but it wouldn't surprise me if the feeling of brush and floss on gums and teeth was just so unpleasant that even 2 minutes was too long to manage.  

After a series of very expensive dental bills, I forced myself to establish a tooth care routine, which I try to do every morning.  I've had multiple oral hygienists tell me it's a pretty good routine, so for completeness' sake, I'll include it here.

1. Scrub tongue with tongue scrubber.  My tongue tends to build up bacteria, especially in the morning.  Scraping off the buildup makes the clean taste from brushing last longer and reduces the overall amount of bacteria in my mouth.
2. Floss.  I use two types of floss.  A braided, thicker floss is the staple for between most of my teeth.  It's quite gentle, doesn't cut into my gums, and catches more food and plaque than the regular floss.  A thinner, waxed floss goes between my lower front teeth and their neighbors, which have a metal wire across the back side of them due to orthodontics.  
3. Brush teeth (and gums).  I use an electric toothbrush with baking soda toothpaste.  There are about 3 bajillion toothpaste types, but my dentist commented to me that my mouth tended to be more acidic than most.  Baking soda toothpaste helps offset that.  I also try to switch brands after each tube.  I read somewhere that the bacteria in your mouth get used to a toothpaste formula after a while, so it's best to do that.  I also try to focus more on the gumline and the back of my mouth rather than the teeth directly.  When the toothbrush's timer ends, I brush the roof of my mouth, then brush my tongue again with the remains of the toothpaste.  
4. Mouthwash.  This keeps my mouth feeling clean a lot longer, even though it can really sting and tastes quite strong.  Listerine's a good brand.  There's been some back and forth about whether alcoholic mouthwashes are a bad idea, since alcohol can dry out your mouth (which leads to more bacteria).  I brush in the morning, so it's not as much of an issue as it would be if I was using it at night.  If you can't stand the flavor of alcoholic mouthwashes, or you tend to do your tooth care at night, there are several kinds of non-alcoholic mouthwashes that still definitely help.