Braun Oral-B Professional Care 500 Electric Rechargeable Toothbrush with Precision Clean Brush Head

This is the third Braun electic toothbush I have used and its the best. After using it just once I could feel the difference on my teeth - it removes so much plaque.

It may be an entry level model but it has all the features that are really needed from the built-in pressure sensor so you don't brush to hard, the indicator light so that you know the battery is running low to the 30 second interval sound to you are reminded to move on to another quadrant of your mouth.

There are two brush heads included in the package which have blue indicator bristles which fade over three months to remind you to change the head.

This brush has a thinner handle and lighter than my previous electric toothbursh which is very useful to me as I have problems with my hands. The toothbrush was quick to charge and holds the charge well so the brush works as well at the end of the week as at the beginning.

The only problem I had is not with the toothbrush itself but with the packaging it is supplied in. Be prepared to struggle as the box is encased in a very tough sealed plastic case which was difficult to get scissors in to cut off at least the version I was sent.

The 'Oral-B Pro Care 500' pretty much does what it says on the tin. It is a good quality, easy to use electric toothbrush. My dentist has been hassling me to get one of these for ages, and I'll have to wait for my next check up for the official verdict, but I think there has already a marked improvement in tooth cleanliness.

The instructions are minimal and easy to follow - plug in, charge, go! Brushing time is timed to two minutes, in order to prevent over or under-brushing. I think this is fairly standard for this type of kit. The two minutes is broken down further into thirty second blocks, to ensure equal time is spent on each quarter of the mouth. Because you only have to concentrate on the moving the brush around your mouth and not the brushing motion itself, it's much easier to concentrate on those hard to reach places that your dentist nags about every time you visit.

Two small gripes. The moulded plug is two-pin shaver, presumably for bathroom safety. Unfortunately there isn't one of those in our house, but adaptors are cheap and easy to come by. My other moan is about the rigid plastic the whole thing was packaged in. It was very difficult to remove, sharp after having been cut open, and will probably still be landfill long after my teeth have been scattered on the four-winds. It was also entirely unnecessary, the cardboard box was plenty sturdy enough. These two minor moans apart this toothbrush is a very satisfactory product.

This is an excellent entry level electric toothbrush from Braun. I've been using one of their previous models (the Vitality) for the last few years, and this model quite simply blows it out of the water.

The toothbrush comes as three separate components; the brush heads, the charger unit, and the handle/motor unit.
The brush comes with two standard Oral-B toothbrush heads in the box - while these don't do floss action, or whitening, or any more advanced cleaning procedures, they're perfectly adequate for day-to-day brushing. Some quick experimentation showed that brush heads that fit the Vitality also fit this Professional Care model, and from this I infer that all the standard Oral-B brush head types will fit (or say otherwise on the box).

Unfortunately, whilst the brush heads benefit from standardisation, the power charger does not; whilst it looks similar to the Vitality charger, it is thinner, and the Professional Care motor unit will not fit on a Vitality charger; this isn't an issue if you only charge one toothbrush, or have two Professional Care brushes, but is slightly annoying to have to plug and unplug two different chargers for brushes made by the same manufacturer. The charger itself is a small white plastic unit, with a two pin plug attached - you may need an adapter to plug it into your wall at home. The base seems small, but does not appear to be unstable.

The brush handle/motor unit is white and blue, and comes with two useful features not found on my earlier model - a timer, and a charge indicator light. The timer causes the brush head to vibrate at 30 second intervals during use, letting the user know when they've reached the `recommended' time spent brushing a `quadrant' of their mouth. This can be quite disorienting at first, as it feels as if the brush charge is giving out. Once you get used to it, it can be quite useful - presuming you want to brush your teeth in quadrants! The timer also has a longer `stutter' at the conclusion of two minutes, to let the user know that they've reached the end of recommended brushing time.

The charge indicator is a straightforward green light, which lights up when the unit is placed on the charger. Flashing green means that it is charging, and steady green means that it is fully charged. This can be quite useful if you're in a hurry and want to know if the brush is charged or not. It's also useful for letting you know when the battery is running low, always a problem on older electric toothbrush models.
The last feature is noticeable in brushing, which is the pressure sensor. This pauses the brush head pulse action (but not the spin) when the user pushes down too hard. This is sometimes difficult to feel, and perhaps a little too subtle, but the attempt to warn a user when they are pushing down too hard is welcome, even if it is of doubtful effectiveness.

The unit is slim and easy to pick up and use (at least for the recommended 2 minutes!). The motor is reasonably powerful, and certainly beats my old Vitality in cleaning power, as well as a comparative test with a manual brush.

In conclusion, some useful features and good cleaning power make this a solid entry level electric toothbrush.