Hands on: Oral B Triumph with Smart Guide 5000

Look after your teeth, and they’ll look after you’, said my Mum, and that advice has held her in good stead as she’s now 50 without any fillings. We all know we’re supposed to brush for 2 minutes at a time, but in this time-poor world, dental hygiene is an area that often gets neglected. Oral-B aims to change that by introducing the OralB Triumph toothbrush which helps inspire you to brush, by including a wireless timer, called the SmartGuide 5000. This  displays a smiley face when you’ve successfully navigated your mouth for over two minutes. Yes, really.

But would this be any good?

The Oral B Triumph 5000 aims to be the most comprehensive brush on the market, and it has a price tag to match. The overly large box (think wasted packaging) loses points on eco-credentials it comes packed with an assortment of brush heads (3) a carry case, a wall bracket, and the wireless SmartGuide display.  The basic idea is that you charge up your brush, choose your favourite settings (Clean/Polish etc) and the brush wirelessly syncs with the SmartGuide, giving you a time goal to brush to. Whilst it’s a nice but gimmicky idea, you have to wonder if this will really encourage people to brush more. I bared my gnashers and prepared to dig in.

The toothbrush

The brush is fairly heavy, with a weighted base, and contoured to make it easy to grip, whether right to left handed. It has a battery meter which indicates the level of power remaining, and two buttons on it for changing the modes. It comes with an easy to use charger, and a full charge takes approximately 5 hours, which will then give you weeks of use. You also get a portable base plate to store your extra brush heads in and this can attach to the charger. There’s a plastic blue carry case for when you travel and the brush feels very comfortable in the hand. With electric toothbrushes, the idea is to let it do all the work, as if you try to apply pressure to the teeth with it the built in pressure sensor will make the brush pulsation stop, so as not to damage the mouth, and you’ll hear an odd whiny sound.

It uses 3D rotate pulsating technology to reach every corner of the mouth, with the bristles performing around 8800 rotations and 40,000 pulsations a minute. Initially I was a little unused to the pressure in my mouth and kept trying to press down on the brush, but once I’d learned to simply allow it float over the teeth I fared much better. I did experience a few days of bleeding gums, as they were unused to the thorough clean, but now they’re used to the deeper clean that doesn’t happen anymore. My mouth feels a lot fresher after use, and  , as I’m removing more stains I do feel that I’m seeing a slight change in colour as well.

The SmartGuide

This white water-resistant device is what Oral-B have based their marketing  around, as they’re very proud of the wireless capabilities it offers. I know, a toothbrush that’s wireless- sounds like an ad man got a little too creative right? Surprisingly, this idea isn’t a total flop, as it works pretty well. True, it has limited functions, but if you’re the type of person who used to love getting gold stars in school, this could be the device for you. The toothbrush has no digital display, so any changes in mode you make are displayed on the SmartGuide. It works as a clock till you switch the brush on, and includes a timer to tell you how long you’ve been brushing for. You can set it for 2-3 minutes, and arrange for it to count up or down.

I found counting up made the brush feel a little too much like hard work, whilst the countdown timer made you feel like you were close to achieving your goal. The timer is displayed in numbers and with a little segmented circle, which is supposed to relate to the quadrants of the mouth. At equal intervals different parts darken, telling you to starts brushing in another section- handy if you forget to brush all around. When you reach your goal a smiley face appears, which should be enough incentive for you to keep going and not cut your session short.

Brushing action and modes

The Oral-B 5000 comes with three brush heads, two for everyday use called FlossAction and one called proBright which provides a deeper polishing clean to help remove those pesky coffee stains. The brushes all feature blue indicator bristles, which not only complement the white/blue colours scheme of the Oral-B brush, but also indicate when they need replacing by fading halfway down the brush in around 3 months.

There are five brushing modes available, to allow you to vary your daily routine. You can pick from Daily Clean, Sensitive, Massage, Polish and Deep Clean. You select a mode by pressing the smaller button on the toothbrush, and different icons will appear on the LCD SmartGuide on the  screen which you can scroll through. The Massage mode helps address sensitive gums by stimulating blood flow there, whilst the Polish mode is best used with the proBright brush head for optimum results. You can actually change mode during brushing, but it’s quite a strange sensation if you do so.

The verdict

Once you’ve mastered the various modes of the brush, you’ll find your mouth feels exceptionally fresh and clean. After a few weeks of use, you’ll notice a difference to the colour of your teeth, and your gums will be a lot healthier as well. It comes with a seal of approval from the British Dental Health Association, so you know it has been thoroughly tested, and though the SmartGuide wireless display won’t be for everyone, I found it really encouraged me to brush for longer.