An electric toothbrush is good. But a smart toothbrush, with 3D tooth detection through artificial intelligence, is impressive (and better)! There are much less expensive toothbrushes on the market! Is the Oral-B iO Series 10 Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush worth the hype … and the cost? Here’s my opinion after trying it.
Box Contents
The box includes the smart handle, 4 iO Ultimate Clean replacement brush heads, a charging stand with display, a power supply, and a plastic case for storing the toothbrush when you want to take it with you without risking damage.
Setting up the Oral B iO Series 10 Toothbrush
The setup is done using the Oral B mobile app (on Android and iOS). Simply follow the steps to connect the brush, and then the iO Sense base. You can then connect the iO Sense base to your wireless network, and start using the brush. Note that it is recommended to fully charge the brush before using it for the first time.
You can also choose the language for the toothbrush’s menu display and the colour of the light ring. No less than half a dozen colours are offered: white, blue, turquoise, pink, orange, and yellow. Something to suit all tastes. Why not red and green? You’ll see in a moment.
Once the setup is complete, the app will prompt you to brush your teeth.
My Test of the Oral B iO Series 10 Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush
Once the app was set it, it asked me to try the toothbrush: I complied and did a first brushing. The toothbrush has several modes:
Clean: This is the normal daily brushing mode
Gentle: For brushing a bit more gently, if you have bleeding gums
Whitening: Ideal when using a whitening toothpaste
Gum Care: A mode designed to take care of your gums
Intense Clean: For brushing your teeth more intensely to dislodge tougher food particles
Extra Gentle: For people with the most sensitive teeth or gums
Tongue Clean: For brushing your tongue, an important step in dental hygiene
However, note that the best way to have healthy teeth and gums is to brush your teeth every day (and, ideally, at least twice a day).
Brushing tracking
During brushing, the toothbrush will indicate if you are applying enough pressure by changing the colour of the ring to green. If the ring keeps the colour you chose, the pressure is insufficient. If the ring lights up red, you are pressing too hard.
You can track the progress of your brushing on your phone, as the app will display two rows of teeth that will change from dark blue to light blue, and then to white, when the brushing has been deemed complete.
After brushing, the small screen on the brush will show the brushing time, as well as a little smiling face if the time exceeded 2 minutes, or a little perplexed or sad face if the time was insufficient.
Then, the app will ask you if your gums bled (an indication that there might be an excess of tartar or plaque). It will then display a complete brushing report, indicating the covered surface, the pressure applied, the brushing time, gum protection, and the tracking of routines, like tongue cleaning, flossing, or the use of mouthwash.
However, during my brushings, I noticed that the tracking was not always very accurate, especially if I moved from one side of the mouth to the other. Sometimes, the app took some time to even detect that I had moved from the lower teeth to the upper teeth. This was a bit disappointing. Of course, this is a feature that could very well be improved with a firmware update, so it’s possible that by the time you read this, this issue has been corrected.
Finally, the app awards you medals to congratulate you when you adopt good habits (to encourage you to maintain them), such as brushing in the morning, at noon, or in the evening, gum protection, etc.
It’s also possible to set reminders to receive a notification when it’s time to change the brush head, after 90 days.
Charging your toothbrush and battery life
I really liked the small magnetic stand: place the toothbrush on it and it charges. It holds the brush in place well, in addition to displaying the time when not in use, and serves as a timer during brushing.
A full charge can take up to 3 hours. Once fully charged, the Oral-B iO Series 10 toothbrush offers a battery life of more than a week: a 2-minute brushing session only uses about 3% or 4% of the battery.
But let’s face it, unless you’re travelling without the stand, there’s a good chance you’ll always place the brush on the charger after use, which means it should always be fully charged. However, the only “negative” point is that there’s no other way to charge the brush than the stand, which means you have to bring it with you just in case, if you leave for a week or more.
What I liked about the Oral-B iO Series 10 toothbrush
- Easy and quick setup
- Beautiful design, with a nice screen
- Magnetic charger serving as a clock and timer
- Brushing pressure tracking with tooth mapping
- Comprehensive app with brushing reports
What I liked less
- The travel case does not allow for the charging stand to be inserted
- The brushing tracking is not super accurate unless you go about it in a really methodical way
- Its price is very high, even for an electric toothbrush
- You must absolutely use the included stand to charge.
Visiting the dentist for repairs or replacements of a tooth is expensive. The Oral B iO Series 10 rechargeable electric toothbrush allows you to perform a brushing almost worthy of a dentist’s cleaning, enabling you to achieve soft and really clean teeth (in addition to tongue brushing). The mobile app, on the other hand, helps you learn and maintain good brushing habits with brushing personal reports and advice. It’s not affordable for all budgets, but you should view its purchase as a long-term investment for your teeth.
Browse the selection of Oral B products available at Best Buy.
