5 thoughts on “Oral-B Professional Care SmartSeries 5000 Rechargeable Toothbrush”

1. I have not used this yet and I’m already disappointed. Two problems for me:

   1. Amazon’s description for this product says that it comes with three brush heads: “Pro White(tm) Brush Head with polishing cup: Whitens teeth by removing surface stains, Oral-B FlossAction® Brush Head: Offers outstanding interdental cleaning, and Oral-B Sensitive Brush Head: Is gentle on teeth and gums.” There are only two brush heads in the package. No big deal, right? Well, then, why not get the description right? I am disturbed by false advertising, even at the level of how many brush heads are included; makes me wonder what else is wrong in the description.

   2. The door to the battery compartment on the SmartSense unit is very hard to remove. It slides about an eighth of an inch and then you have to pick it off. That is very unclear and the manual does not give directions on how to remove it without breaking it. If you have any problems with your fingers, you may not be able to get it open since it requires a lot of force to move the back that one eighth of an inch. That is a problem, especially since the SmartSense unit is one of the reasons this unit is so expensive. I went to the Oral-B website to find a solution for this problem and there was none. The website is purely a marketing site.

   This product is advertised with great features, and others have given it good reviews. It had better be great or this is one customer who will take advantage of the 60-day money back guarantee.
   Rating: 2 / 5

2. All electric toothbrushes clean… great.

   But the design of this thing is amazingly retarded for a $100 toothbrush. For starters, no wall mount. So, if you have a pedestal sink or limited counter space, don’t bother with this product. If you have about a square foot of bathroom counter space to devote to this clumsy beast, go for it, it cleans well. Also, if you don’t mind a gigantic protruding eye-sore of a power adapter, this product is also for you.

   Don’t get me wrong, it cleans teeth. It’s just sad that the accessories are so poorly designed.
   Rating: 2 / 5

3. Oral-B 5000 review

   Purchase of the well-reviewed electric toothbrush has been frustrated by inconsistent information on the Amazon.com website regarding the number of brushheads included. The product info says ’3′ and the image says ’2′. I called Amazon trying to get 3 brushheads to test out prior to purchasing a follow-on set. Long story short – Amazon said to call Oral-B. Oral-B had no idea and said to call Amazon. Apparently Amazon custom packages these as do other companies and making the order became a gamble. I was unlucky, then, because although the website states 3 brushheads I received 2 as per the image on the box. To me this is unsatisfactory, especially when Amazon customer service said the mismatched info would be corrected in days, which it was not. That said, in general there appear to be several versions of the SmartSeries 5000 toothbrush with varying brushhead counts, up to 4 or more. And this confusion is added to by the fact that these are rebranded ‘Triumph’-series toothbrushes, now called SmartSeries 5000s.

   To the point: the initial experience upon receiving the product was that it was an unfinished beta-product of sorts. My sense was that the toothbrush holder could be wall mounted. This is not the case. So it now is perched inside my medicine cabinet on the lowest shelf, and I worry about the toothbrush falling out onto the sink. The holder is not well designed to prevent such occurrence. The wireless display is agreed to be surprisingly useful, though is impractical in use as the best place to use the affixing pad is dead-center on the bathroom mirror. An angled plastic bracket that has a rotating joint should allow positioning of the device off the wall and at various angles so to be seen. Instead, I keep it inside the medicine cabinet and take it out and lean it against my electric shaver so it faces upward from atop the sink, only when using the toothbrush. Such an additional mounting clip/attachment should also allow angled placement on a flat surface and not just a wall. So that a 30-degree tilt (+/-) could angle the display when placed atop the sink.

   Using the toothbrush: I could not stand it on the first run. It was like having a floor polisher in your mouth. If you have a battered nervous system it may only be possible to use it on the ‘sensitive setting’. The problem as mentioned elsewhere in these reviews is that you have to cycle through several maximal settings to get to the sensitive, more gentle setting. And there is no memory on the device (which is why it seems to be a beta-product or unrefined at this most basic level of efficient use). This was surprising and for this reason alone I would avoid purchasing this product until a new revised version fixes such basic oversights. That is work for Oral-B. Yet I also would wait until Amazon fixes their information and stops selling the product as including 3 brushheads when it ships with 2. I do not understand how this misrepresentation is acceptable as a business practice, especially when multiple calls to remedy the situation do nothing to change it, even after assurances by Amazon that it is being addressed.

   All in all I would wait until the next version because 100+ dollars for such a product is not a good investment in its present design incarnation. The next product perhaps will fix these and other issues (such as default setting, wall mountable toothbrush holder, cap for toothbrush head, tilt-adjustable/angled attachment for wireless display, accelerometer for gesture control of settings, 5 second delay when turning on the device so to get it inside your mouth prior to floor polisher modes, and perhaps reworking the entire user interface, especially the useless LCD GUI on the handle. e.g. if the LCD is only used for battery-indicator status when off, why not replace this large screen display with a single color e-ink strip or other display tech that shows charge amount as a linear graph, e.g. 2/3rds battery full). Also, these products should be selling at half their retail price for what they are.

   In general you will be a beta-tester of a product that never should have shipped in its current substandard condition of functioning. Perhaps it is indicative of corporate malaise. It is thus bothersome to think that when a fix arrives that what should have been fixed can only gained via repurchasing. For this reason I think an upgrade path should be given to those who invested in this product, and are left disappointed yet still need and find use for it. If it were available I would be interested in upgrading for a nominal fee from the current product to the next product if such a trade-in program were available. That would be the right thing to do for selling such a subpar device versus a quality product, i.e. while useful it includes and relies on needless ongoing frustrations.

   My recommendation would also be that Oral-B standardizes their packaging and ships a single product under the 5000 label, or whatever the next version will be, and does not have a dozen different competing packaging strategies which confuse and complexify the product offering for potential users. While I like the idea of the product its exuberant praise to me seems oversold. It is okay, it is not great. It is basically the same technology that has been around for 30+ years now and seemingly has not advanced significantly. And it should and could be much better. Ideally a standardized package would include a variety of brushheads to test out, such as a sampler pack (5 types, say), and also an instructional DVD (included in some sets) which is an item of no-cost to include.

   In summary, it is a letdown to be excited about investing in an electric toothbrush for all the benefits it can offer and then to be disappointed in the process of finding out basic information (which is wrong/inaccurate) and then having a different product shipped, which then also is not due the high praise given it, which only reinforces the continuation of such mediocrity. Three stars is a fair assessment. One star for Amazon and it’s customer service for dealing with inquiries and not responding to conflicting information even after stating they would. Two stars for Oral-B for not having a better product on the market which addresses basic design issues and known flaws and concerns. Now, if only there were an upgrade path… There is no good reason a 5 star product should not be shipping in place of this 3 star product. Oral-b is not investing in the product itself, only exploiting what can be gained from the last substandard version by rebranding it. This is a foolish strategy that dilutes the integrity of the brand which then is reflected in the poor design quality, needless confusion, and the unsatisfactory customer experience throughout the entire process.

   Maybe a health-technology startup will challenge the malaise and rightfully steal the market away from the behemoth non-innovators and wake things up again. Until then there is little or no choice, which is an indication of the status quo. Its what being sold yet its not good enough to buy, a prisoners dilemma.

   – UPDATE –

   I decided to return the product for a full-refund (minus shipping) to Oral-B as part of their 60-day challenge. This resulted from the need to charge the device frequently, every 5 days or so, just using it 6 minutes a day. The battery technology is outdated and in obvious need of an upgrade, it should run for 2+ weeks on a charge at least, and for more than 6 minutes a day. While the accompanying effect of playing a didgeridoo while brushing teeth is enjoyable, it is constrained by all the limits and special requirements needed to use this tool for its core purpose: brushing teeth. Instead, using this product takes more time, not with brushing but with everything else, storing the product in the medicine cabinet for lack of a wall mount, wrapping and unwrapping the cord when in need of a way too frequent recharge (so as not to trip the brush and have it fall into the sink below and break, which becomes inevitable), and then to avoid these problems, to take everything out of the medicine cabinet and to put the device on the sink basin where there is no room, just to charge, and then to store everything back and repeat every few days, ad absurdum. It is the addition of these inefficiencies, a result of dysfunctional design, that end up wasting more time than simply using a manual toothbrush. i.e. storing and taking out the device, having to take out and temporarily setup the wireless display to be able to see it and then store it away again, etc. It is quite nice to use on the sensitive setting yet everything else seems not to work all that well, if not existing as meaningless if not simple frills (settings, display icons). What is also odd is with all the accolades of ‘dental professionals’ that there is no basic info on effectively using the brush to improve brushing technique, as per dentist recommendations (besides the 2 minute clause). Then, the naming of this as “Smart” makes it all the more clear that this product requires ~nurturing the electronics in order for it to work, which adds additional work to the basic task to be performed. This is seriously odd. I wanted to keep the product, yet it is way too much of a hassle to use effectively. Maybe if I had a bigger sink and more space it could work, yet the charge time is still insufficient in the extreme. Not worth 100+ dollars. And I am lowering my rating to two stars due to the short battery life. Instead, I may opt for a cheaper battery driven electric toothbrush to continue the benefits of scrubbing the teeth and wait for a better product to arrive which is worth investing in. Perhaps it is an impossibility with the market cornered.

   – UPDATE #2 –

   I have since purchased the inexpensive Oral-B Vitality Precision Clean Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush and recommend others do the same until a better electric toothbrush arrives worthy of such investment. Note, also, that a risk of electrocution is involved and is related to the lack of any wall mounting or medicine-cabinet (interior/under) mounting options, which then makes the issue of a charging base slipping into a sink of water your problem to deal with, however unconsciously, instead of dealing with such issues in advance. Please see the customer images for the Vitality where as DIY solution for in-cabinet storage of the charging base and toothbrush, as well as for the brushhead. Oral-B should be doing these things and including cord maintenance and recommendations for storage, versus expecting everyone to have a large sink area to place gadgetry. That said, hopefully such critique will cut through the high-praise given to mediocrity and spur innovation amidst the ongoing malaise. Vitality > SmartSeries 5000.
   
   Rating: 2 / 5

4. As a toothbrush the Oral B 5000 is outstanding – 5 Stars! Prior reviewers have already commented on the power converter that sticks 3 inches out from the electrical wall plug – duh. Also the enigma of how to open the battery compartment of the “Smart Guide Display unit”. (TWO covers to be removed with gorilla fingers, sliding each in opposite directions.)

   Fortunately the rechargeable (Ni-MH) battery in the handle can be replaced (compared to the older Braun models that became useless once the battery died), but how to change the battery is a deeper mystery. (Amidst the very poorly written instructions, the section for replacing the rechargeable battery provides only a small diagram that is utterly unintelligible.) I went to the [...] website and clicked on “email us”, but what a bad joke that was – I just ended in an endless search option in their FAQ section. Next I’ll call them at [...].

   Oh, then you have to remember twice a year to not use the battery charger, so that the battery discharges completely in order to “maintain the maximum capacity of the rechargeable body”. (Since a full charge is claimed to last at least 10 days, I suppose one then turns on the toothbrush and leaves it running on the bathroom counter… hoping the internal moving parts don’t wear out in the process.)

   CRITICAL: In these days of airline security concerns, if you bring the toothbrush with you (as my dentist recommends), DON’T FORGET to deactivate the radio transmitter that is built into the toothbrush handle (to communicate with the “Smart Guide display unit”).

   In summary: This is a fabulous toothbrush (10x better than my previous Braun model) but a disaster on the “user friendliness” scale. I can only hope that in the next few years Braun’s competition will “eat their lunch” with something yet better and much simpler to use!

   Rating: 1 / 5

5. My dentist recommended this to me for two reasons: to aid in the removal of plaque or prevent it’s build up and also because i have a tendency to brush too hard, which over time, can ruin your gums and cause sensitive teeth. I have resisted this purchase for years, but it has become apparent that I really needed to get one. Research indicated that this was the best brush as far as effectiveness.

   I’m not all that excited about vibrating toothbrushes–reminds me a lot of going to the dentist. But this really isn’t so bad. I was a little skeptical–but after feeling the “dentist clean” feeling, I was sold. I love that the brush stops if i try to brush too hard. the little display that shows the quadrants and how long you are brushing is a little helpful–although certainly not a selling feature in my book. funny though, i found as did many reviewers, that this serves as a great bathroom clock!

   The information on amazon can be a bit confusing. You get a travel case, charger, 2 brush tips (1 pro white and 1 floss), and the display.

   The handle is a bit on the large size and i’m not sure it would be good for children. I prefer smaller handles, however, they can’t fit all that computer programming into a smaller handle.

   You do have to practice a bit at keeping your mouth closed enough that the toothbrush doesn’t spray. But it has never been a real issue for me–i would say any spray has been minimal. And every electric toothbrush has this issue.

   I prefer the smaller brush head on these to the larger brush heads. on normal toothbrushes I prefer full size brush heads–but when you have a large handle, it seems much more maneuverable to have the smaller head. And it doesn’t feel stranger or bother me–i adapted on first use.

   When you are done using, it is best to remove brush from handle and thoroughly run it under water. This can prevent toothpaste from building up.

   Oral B has a 60 day try it guarantee and will refund your money if you are not happy. That seems like a good deal.
   Rating: 5 / 5