Oral B vs Sonicare 2020, which is better? Look, it is indisputable that Oral B and Sonicare are the dominant players in the best electric toothbrush market.
These two giants are always trying to out-compete each other by inventing different new models in a constant Sonicare vs Oral B electric toothbrush unending battle for outright domination like these latest Oral B Genius X Luxe 10000 Vs Sonicare Diamondclean Smart 9750.
The numerous models produced by these two titans can be a maze for consumers to sort out. Here is where it gets interesting: both Sonicare and Oral B have tantalizing features that make teeth cleaning effective, fun and cool. They are equally backed by numerous scientific studies that indicate that they remove way more plaque than any manual toothbrushes.
We have spent an enormous amount of time to research the best picks from low priced to high-end electric toothbrushes that remove most plaque and improve the health of your gums.
Oral B vs Philips Sonicare History
Braun Oral B was first started by a doctor from California called DR. Robert W. Hutson. It was the first company to make toothbrushes with soft bristles that were gentle to gums.
The Californian doctor later sold his patented Oral B toothbrush (then called Oral B 60) to Gillette and Braun that is owned by Proctor and Gamble. Oral B is now a subsidiary of Proctor and Gamble.
Meanwhile, Philips Sonicare initially started as an entrepreneurial project by an electrical engineer named David Gulliani. He teamed up with two University professors to form a company called Gemtec.
They launched their first toothbrush in 1992. They later rebranded themselves as Optiva. Optiva was sold to Philips domestic appliances subsidiary and renamed Philips Oral health.
It became very popular and became the best selling toothbrush in the USA, In 2003 they renamed it Philips Sonicare for marketing purposes.
Different Models by Braun Oral B:
- Genius X 10000, Oral B Genius X Luxe
- Genius 9600 (Check, Oral B Genius X vs 9600 Review) and or Oral B Genius 9600 vs Sonicare Diamondclean Smart 9700.
- Genius 8000 (Check Oral B Genius 8000 vs 9600 Review) and or Oral-B Genius Pro 8000 vs Philips Sonicare Diamondclean Smart.
- Pro 7500, 7000 (Check, Oral B 7000 vs 7500 Review) and or Oral B 7000 vs 8000 Review. Not forgetting our Oral B 7000 Vs Philips Sonicare Diamondclean Smart 9500 .
- 6000 (Check, Oral B Pro 6000 Smart vs Genius 8000)
- 5000 series (Check Oral B 5000 vs 6000 vs 7000 Comparison)
- 4000 series:
- Professional Care 3000
- Professional Care 2000, check Oral B 1000 vs 2000 Review.
- 1000 series (Check, Oral B Pro 1000 Vs 1500) and or Oral B Pro 1000 vs 3000 Review and or Oral B Pro 1000 vs Philips Sonicare Protectiveclean 4100.
- Vitality series
- Kids Oral B electric Toothbrush (Check, Best Electric Toothbrush For Kids Ages 3 to12 Year Old)
Electric Toothbrush Model List by Philips Sonicare:
- Smart 9300/9500/9700 (Check, Philips Sonicare Diamondclean Smart 9750 vs 9700 vs 9500 vs 9300)
- Protectiveclean (Check Philips Sonicare Protectiveclean 4100 vs 5100 vs 6100 Reviews) and or Philips Sonicare Diamondclean vs Protectiveclean 6100.
- Flexcare Platinum connected (Check, Philips Sonicare Flexcare Platinum vs Sonicare Diamondclean Review)
- Flexcare Plus: HX6921/02, HX6921/04, HX6911/02 (Check Philips Sonicare Flexcare Plus vs Platinum vs Protectiveclean).
- Healthy white: HX6731/02 (Check, Philips Sonicare Healthywhite vs Protectiveclean.)
- For kids: HX6311/02, HX6311/07 (Check Philips Sonicare for Kids Review)
- 2 and 3 series plaque control and gum health: HX6211/04 (Check, Philips Sonicare Series 2 vs Series 3 Review)
- essence: HX5610/04, HX5610/30, HX5620/20, HX5630/50 (Check Philips Sonicare Essence vs. Sonicare Essence Plus Comparison )
- easy clean: HX6511/50
Key Features and Similarities
- Two Minutes Timer: Both have a minute timer: One common feature between Philips Sonicare and Oral B is the two minutes timer. The timer alerts you when you have brushed for the dentist recommended two minutes. It also alerts you every 30 seconds to move from one section/quarter of the mouth (quadrant) to the next one, so that all sections of your mouth are given adequate care and attention.
- Charging Stations: Both have charging stations with a relatively small footprint.
- Two Years Guarantee: Both brands offer two years guarantee on their toothbrushes. Oral B offers to return your money if at all you are not happy with your purchase within 60 days while Sonicare allows only 28 days money-back guarantee after the purchase.
- They both have LCD screen display: Both have models that have LCD screen display.
Timers, Quadpacers and Pressure Sensors
Although both Sonicare and Oral B have timers and quad-pacers, the Sonicare one only sounds off every 30 seconds to alert you that you should move to another quadrant in your mouth when brushing while Oral B especially the more recent ones like Genius 8000 buzzes and also visually signals you by flashing light on the customizable 360 smart ring. They also have a digital timer which you can view in their flagship smart guide. This way you also easily monitor visually that you are brushing for the recommended 2 minutes.
Pressure sensors alert you when you are brushing too hard. Brushing too hard can be harmful to your gums. Almost all Oral B brushes have pressure sensors integrated into them apart from Oral B Deep Sweep 1000 and the battery-operated Oral B Vitality Series.
Meanwhile, in the Philips Sonicare range, only the Philips Sonicare Flexcare HX6921/02 and the new DiamondClean Smart Sonic Series 9500/ 9700 with Bluetooth connectivity features a pressure sensor. However, all Sonicare toothbrushes will starter and stall when you apply too much pressure. This is as close they come to having an inbuilt pressure sensor.
Brushing Modes
Sonicare and Oral B both have different toothbrush modes in their range; However, Oral B has a wide selection of brushing modes than Sonicare. For instance, Sonicare’s high-end toothbrush, Philips DiamondClean has five brushing modes compared to the Oral B that has six brushing modes.
Brush Heads
Oral B has a wider selection of brush heads than Sonicare. The cool thing is that all variations of Oral-B’s brush heads are compatible with all different Oral B toothbrush models, from high end to basic models. This means you can use Oral B 7000 brush head on an Oral B 3000 toothbrush. Their brush heads are also relatively cheaper than Sonicare.
On the other hand, not all Sonicare replacement brush heads are compatible with different models. Their replacement brush head is slightly more expensive than Oral B.
Grapevine has it that Sonicare’s brush head last longer than Oral B. Initially Sonicare brush heads (according to official e-manuals of E-series models like Elite and Essence) lasted for six months but they recently changed that to three months just like Oral B.
Philips Sonicare brush heads come in two versions: standard and compact. The standard one is similar to manual brushes while the compact is smallish.
DiamondClean, Adaptive Clean, Simply Clean, E-series, ProResults and Sonicare for Kids come fitted with the compact brush head.
All Sonicare models have a compatible compact brush head. The compact small brush heads easily access those difficult to reach areas in our mouth.For this reason and the noise aspect, some people consider Sonicare brushes to be more comfortable to use than Oral B electric toothbrush.
Design
Oral B brushes especially the top end ones have classy features like Bluetooth connectivity and the wireless Smartguide that tracks your brushing progress. Most have a visual digital timer. They have differently designed brush heads and generally look more modern and cool.
Sonicare on the other part has a simpler look. They look like traditional manual brushes. Its high-end brushes like the FlexCare Platinum also have additional features like charging glass (DiamondClean), USB connectivity and smart sensors that have Bluetooth connectivity.
Brushing Technology
One of the defining differences between these two toothbrush producers is the cleaning technology. These two brands employ different patented brushing technology.
Philips Sonicare uses sonic Vibration, while Oral B employs Rotations and Oscillations (In the more recent versions like Oral B 7000 and Genius 8000, they have added pulsations).
Philips uses vibrations also called Sonic technology. This involves movements of the bristles at ultra-high speeds (62000 movements per minute) alongside your teeth.
Phillips Sonicare deploys the ultrasonic technology.
Ultrasonic technology simply means that the bristles make numerous circular movements around your teeth that sweep fluid around your teeth and in between crevices of your teeth to remove any food residue and plaque.
Unlike ordinary electric toothbrushes that vibrate between 2000-7000 strokes per minute, the Philips Sonicare Ultrasonic movements hit 31,000 strokes per minute.
These high-frequency vibrations enable Sonicare toothbrushes to be quite effective in removing plaque and providing overall dental care. Sonicare toothbrushes remove up to 7 times more plaque than ordinary electric toothbrushes according to Sonicare vs Oral B clinical study by over 50 Universities. The latest Adaptive brush head by Sonicare is clinically proven to clean 10 times better than a manual toothbrush.
The overall effect of ultrasonic movements is that your teeth become whiter and your gums get stronger and healthier because most of the plaque that makes your gums weak is easily removed when cleaning.
Oral B Rotation and Oscillation Technology: When Oral B first produced their first electric toothbrush over twenty years ago, they employed rotations movement in their teeth cleaning technology. Later they added Oscillations.
The combination of rotation and oscillation technique is the one used in almost all Oral B toothbrushes. In the Rotation and Oscillation technology, the brush head makes semi-circular back and forth movements as you brush from tooth to tooth.
This technology ensures that each tooth is brushed effectively. It dismantles any built-up plaque in the teeth and under the gum line. Recently Oral B has added pulsating movements in their high range brushes. Pulsations make the bristles to move in between teeth in an “in-out” movement of 0.5mm made by the brush head.
The movements start from the rear to the front. According to almost every Sonicare vs oral b study, the pulsations improve penetration of bristles in between teeth and hard to reach areas where it is difficult to dislodge and remove plaque.
This 3D technology (rotation, oscillation, and pulsation) is now generally referred to as Oral-b professional care Series. It involves angled movements of the brush that make 40,000 pulses per minute and 8,800 bristle oscillations that remove plaque around your tooth.
The brush is angled at 16 degrees for best results that cover all dimensions of your teeth. Scientific research indicates that 3D rotary technique of cleaning teeth is effective in removing plaque and organic stains.
It also reduces gingivitis inflammation and stain formation. This technique can make your teeth a few shades whiter in a matter of two weeks and removes four times more plaque than a manual toothbrush.
Bluetooth Connectivity
Philips Sonicare has only two models with blue technology embedded in it: DiamondClean Smart Series and Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected, These two brushes have smart sensors that send your brushing data to Sonicare App that will give you feedback and coach on how to improve your brushing experience for better results.
Oral B has the smart guide technology the uses Bluetooth to connect the toothbrush to a smart device. This enables users to track their tooth-cleaning regime to know the progress they are making. The Bluetooth connectivity enables users to visually see their oral cleaning on a Smartphone screen.
These are the Toothbrushes by Oral B that have the Bluetooth technology feature: Pro 5000, 6000, 7500 and 8000 Smart Series.
Ultra Violet Sanitizer
Philips Sonicare introduced UV Sanitizer in their top-end models. The UV sanitizer ensures that your toothbrush is 100% of free of germs and bacteria.
When your brush is stored in the open, there is a chance that stray microorganisms might get in contact with your brush. This could be in the form of dust or any in the imaginable thing.
Boiling the brush in water is out of the question since the bristles are made of plastic. Running cold water on the brush does not get rid all microorganisms that may be on the toothbrush. However, with a UV sanitizer, all germs and microorganisms will be denatured by Ultra Violet rays. Check, Best Electric Toothbrush With UV Sanitizer.
Dual Charging
Philips Sonicare, as already mentioned has a double charging system. You can charge the electric toothbrush on American standards sockets and on international electric sockets that usually operate on 220 voltages.
Variety and Comfort when in Use
Sonicare have put much effort into making their toothbrush as comfortable and easy to use as possible. Their brush heads are small, just like manual brushes, they are relatively less noisy when in use and they have an easy-start feature that reduces the number of rotations the bristles make to enable a new user get accustomed to using the electric toothbrush.
The rotations will be gradually increased until you get comfortable with using an electric toothbrush.
All these efforts and features make it easy for you to effortlessly transition from using a manual toothbrush to an electric one. My research of hundreds of customer feedback indicates that many people find Sonicare toothbrushes more comfortable to use than Oral B., In my opinion, this is why Sonicare brushes are still popular, in spite of their relatively higher price point compared to Oral B.
Other Deciding Factors
As we have seen the two cleaning techniques by Oral B and Sonicare electric toothbrush are comparably effective- there is no clear winner when using brushing technique as a basis of making a decision. There are other facts that may help you decide which of the two brands to go for.
- How long does the battery last after charge: In general, toothbrushes by Philips Sonicare have long-lasting battery life. They last up to three weeks after only one full charge. This can be quite helpful especially if you are travelling. Check Best Travel Electric Toothbrush 2019. Meanwhile, Oral B brushes have a far shorter battery life of between 7 to 10 days. The new Oral B Genius 8000 has a battery life of 12 days. This might however not be a big deal if you mainly use your toothbrush at home. You can choose to charge it after a couple of days to keep the charge topped up.
- Voltage Features: All Oral B toothbrushes operate only on American standard voltage of 110 volts. This means they can only be used in the USA. In case you travel abroad you will need a converter. Sonicare toothbrushes on the other hand support both 220V and 110V which enables you to charge the toothbrush both on American standard volts sockets and international sockets that support 220V system.
- Noise and Feel: Philips Sonicare toothbrushes are relatively quiet when in use compared to Oral B which are generally noisier. However, once you get used to your toothbrush, the noise is not such a bother. It is a tolerable noise.
- When it comes to look and feel: Sonicare brush heads look like traditional manual brushes. They are oblong in shape while Oral B brush heads are rounded and do not look like traditions toothbrushes. According to Oral B, the rounded shape of their brush heads is inspired by dentistry tools. High-end Sonicare brush handles are made of rubber and matte. Oral B, on the other hand, has an ergonomic handle made of rubber.
Price
Philips Sonicare toothbrushes are generally considered more costly than Oral B. However, a lot also depends on where you buy from, if you buy from Online stores like Amazon, you are bound to get a discounted and competitive price.
Though Oral B clearly has more variety when it comes to brush heads and also employ advanced technology in their toothbrushes, they are cheaper than Sonicare.
Oral B vs Sonicare, Which is Better?
In the battle between Oral B vs Sonicare, we all agree that both of them are the best electric toothbrush brands on the market:
Both these patented techniques of oral hygiene have data-driven evidence that proves them to be effective in cleaning teeth. They have both been scientifically proven to remove plaque hidden under the gum and in-between teeth. In spite of the high-speed movements in Philips Sonicare Sonic technology and Braun Oral B 3D (rotating, oscillating and pulsating) technology, both of these patented cleaning techniques are gentle on the gum and offer overall comfortable cleaning experience.
Some studies indicate that Sonicare is slightly better at reducing gingivitis inflammation than Oral B. However the margins are so small to make any solid conclusion.