The toothbrush shelf. Eight records judged on the documents they publish: the movement figures two makers print and six decline to, the battery lives that run from fourteen printed days to nine printed months to one house's adjective, and a seal that lives in an association's directory rather than on the pages that sell the brushes. The hero frame is one of the bank's shared portraits; the photo bank holds no electric toothbrush product photography, so the cards below run imageless, as every grooming Card here does.
Checked and updated October 2026
The short version: Philips's ProtectiveClean 6100, the shelf's most complete document, wins at 86, with Oral-B's iO Series 5 at 83 and its Pro 1000 at 80 behind it. The counts the whole table rests on: a movement figure printed by the maker for the model being sold, 2 of 8, and the two disagree in kind, 62,000 brush movements against 9,630 oscillations, a movement counting one pass of the bristles and an oscillation the whole stroke. A battery life printed in days in the maker's own current documents, 5 of 8, running from fourteen days to nine months; Oral-B prints none for either of its brushes. A warranty term standing in the maker's documents, 6 of 8, five of them at two years and one of them a lifetime that runs only while a subscription does. A record standing in the ADA's own Seal directory at the check, 4 of 8, and no Sonicare among them. The door prices run from $25 to $129.99, and a year of heads from $20 to $63.96. The hum by Colgate is sent home: its maker no longer sells it.
First, the decision
The default buy: Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 6100, 86. The complete table, the printed figure, the tracked head and the term, bought at retail while the maker's own store retires its variants.
The sensor case: Oral-B iO Series 5, 83. The only sensor here that reads three ways, too hard, too soft, just right, over a record that prints no number for its drive and no days for its battery.
The plain record: Oral-B Pro 1000, 80. The model the ADA's own listing names, its warranty printed entire, at $55.
The basis case: Philips Sonicare 4100, 77. Fourteen printed days with the basis printed under them, bought at Target while the maker's store lists the variant out of stock.
The numbered challenger: quip Rev, 76. The shelf's only oscillation figure, printed by its maker in its own FAQ, at $50.
The battery case: BURST Pro 2.0, 71. Nine printed months and the conditional lifetime, bought with its unnumbered motor read on its card.
The minimum case: quip Sonic, 70. One mode, a five-dollar head, a one-year term printed on its own page, and the seal standing behind it in the association's directory.
Sent home: hum by Colgate. A complete smart record in its era, retired by its maker, whose shop no longer sells the adult brush. The full case is at the foot of the cards.
This shelf, in three findings
The unit is the number, and six makers print no number at all
Count the makers who print what their motor does in a unit a buyer can compare. Two of eight, for the model being sold, and the two figures cannot be compared until the units are read. Philips prints up to 62,000 brush movements a minute for the ProtectiveClean 6100: a movement is one pass of the bristles, so the number counts two per stroke, and the stroke figure a buyer might set beside a rival's is half the headline. quip prints 9,630 oscillations a minute for its Rev, in its own FAQ: an oscillation is the whole stroke, the smaller number in the honest unit. Between those two poles the shelf goes quiet in instructive ways. Oral-B, the largest house here, prints no movement figure on either US product page as read: the iO drive is oscillations with micro-vibrations, the Pro drive is a 3D cleaning action, mechanisms named and never numbered, while the figures attached to their names, 8,800 oscillations for the Pro line, live in retail and manual copy. BURST calls its motor its most powerful yet, one of the most powerful on the market, and prints no figure on its own page; the 33,000 vibrations a minute under its name stands in review copy. quip's Sonic prints no figure in its maker's documents at all; the 15,000 RPM under its name stands in a retail listing. Card No. 124 graded the same shape on the trimmer shelf, one numbered motor in a category of adjectives. A toothbrush is a motor with a head on it, and six makers of eight ask to be believed about the motor.
The battery column runs from a footnoted fortnight to a basisless nine months to an adjective
A battery life is a number with a basis or it is a mood, and this shelf prints all three kinds. Philips prints up to two weeks for both its records, and its documents carry the basis, two periods of two-minute brushings a day on the standard mode: the figure can be held still and checked against a buyer's own habit. quip prints up to three months for the Sonic and up to thirty days for the Rev, each with its basis in the maker's footnote, the charge counted on the gentle or medium setting at two minutes twice a day. BURST prints up to nine months for the Pro 2.0, the longest figure on the shelf by a factor of six, and on the page as read no usage basis stands beside it: not the mode, not the minutes, not the brushings a day the nine months were counted on. The number may be true. The document does not let a buyer hold it still. And Oral-B prints no battery life in days for either brush: the iO's cell is long-lasting, the Pro's is a standard charger and battery, the category's biggest name selling the category's most-asked figure as an adjective. Read in sequence, the shelf's battery claims run from a fortnight with its working shown, to nine months with its working withheld, to no figure at all.
The second price is the head, and the seal lives in a directory, not on the page
A toothbrush is bought twice, once at the door and once a quarter for as long as the handle lives, and the makers' willingness to print the second price divides this shelf as cleanly as the motor figures do. Every record here prints the interval, three months or twelve weeks, dentists' arithmetic no house disputes. The price of obeying it runs from quip's five dollars a head on its plan, twenty dollars a year, through BURST's eight dollars at its own store, to Oral-B's $15.99 a head at its maker's store for both its lines, $63.96 a year, with Philips's C2 heads at $29.99 for two between them. The reminder machinery divides the same way: BrushSync heads track their own use and light the reminder, Oral-B's iO tracks the head in the handle, and the rest run on the calendar and the bristle colour. The warranty column stands beside the head column and mostly agrees at two years, with two instructive exceptions: BURST's lifetime, which runs only while a head subscription does, a term with a rent attached, and quip's one year, the shelf's shortest fixed term, printed plainly on its own page. And the seal a buyer assumes stands behind the big names lives somewhere he never looks. In the ADA's own directory, read at the check, stand the iO Series, the Pro 1000 by name, and both quips. No Sonicare stands there: the ProtectiveClean held the seal in the association's earlier summary, the 4100's listing was reported withdrawn this year, and Philips's own pages print professional superlatives where the seal would go. The $25 brush carries a document the $124 brush has never had.
How the scores work
Each card is scored out of 100 on five rows. Specification & claim honesty (30) grades whether the published record matches the name on the box and the claim in the copy: whether a movement figure stands printed by the maker and in what unit, whether a battery life stands printed in days or only as an adjective, whether one model name covers one record or a sprawl of variants in different states of availability, and whether a seal the house once held still stands in the awarding body's own current directory. Mechanism & head record (20) grades the machine as published: the drive as the maker names it and the figure where one stands, a motor sold by adjectives charged as adjectives; and the head system, its printed replacement interval, its printed price, and the reminder machinery, a head that tracks its own use counted above a calendar line. Fit & format (20) grades the format as printed against the job: the pressure sensor and what it does, stop, slow, light or sound, the timer and its pacer, the modes counted as printed, and the box, case and charger as the maker itemises them. Value (15) grades the checked door price against the printed record, with replacement heads counted as the running cost at the maker's printed price and interval. Longevity & service (15) grades the maker's printed warranty term and the service doors behind it, a term printed entire on the product's own page counted above one that lives in a manual, and a conditional term, lifetime cover that runs only while a subscription does, graded as the condition it is. Scores grade documents, not teeth. Efficacy is graded nowhere on this page: this desk brushed nothing, and that discipline is printed again in the honesty section below.
The shelf, scored
Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 6100
The winner is a table. Philips prints the ProtectiveClean 6100's record as a specification block on its own product page, and no other record on this shelf attempts one: a speed, up to 62,000 brush movements a minute, an operating time, up to two weeks, a battery type, rechargeable lithium ion, and a warranty term, two-year limited, all standing where a buyer can read them without opening a manual. Around the table the mechanisms are printed as mechanisms. The pressure sensor vibrates the handle when the brush is pushed too hard and dims an indicator light. The SmarTimer ends the brush at two minutes and the QuadPacer marks every thirty seconds. The heads carry BrushSync, a chip that tracks actual use and pairs with the handle to light a replacement reminder when the head's three months are spent, and the box is itemised entire: three heads, an Optimal Plaque Defence C2, an Optimal Gum Care G2 and a DiamondClean W, a travel case and a charger. Three modes, Clean, White and Gum Care, each at three intensities, the nine combinations printed as modes paired to heads rather than as a badge count. The deductions stand on the card beside the win. The movement figure is the honest unit's inverse: a movement is one pass of the bristles, two per stroke, so the 62,000 a buyer compares against a strokes figure is a stroke count of half that, and Philips does not print the stroke count beside it. The maker's own store is a record in motion: the HX6463/50 variant stands marked no longer available there at its suggested $119.95, and the brush is bought at retail, Target's shelf at $129.99 for the whitening variant. And the seal this line carried in the ADA's own earlier summary table does not stand in the association's current directory, a history graded in the seal column rather than a present. The heads run at the C2 shelf price, $29.99 for two on the maker's accessory shelf, $59.98 a year at the printed interval. It wins as the most complete document a buyer can check, with its retirements and its unit printed where they belong, on the card.
$129.99 at Target, checked October 23, 2026 (the maker's own store lists the HX6463/50 at a suggested $119.95 and marks that variant no longer available; the brush sells at retail)
Buy · $129.99 at Target| Specification & claim honesty | 26 / 30 |
| Mechanism & head record | 18 / 20 |
| Fit & format | 18 / 20 |
| Value | 11 / 15 |
| Longevity & service | 13 / 15 |
Oral-B iO Series 5
The most informative sensor on the shelf, over the least numbered drive. The iO Series 5's pressure sensor reads three ways and says which way: a light ring that signals too hard, too soft or just right, a claim a buyer can test against his own hand in the first week, printed as a mechanism rather than as a promise. The record around it is the iO line's usual mixture of the itemised and the gestured. Five modes stand named, Daily Clean, Intense, Sensitive, Super Sensitive and Whitening, with a two-minute timer, a brush recognition system that tracks position through the maker's app, and a Brush Head Tracker that watches the head's age. The box is itemised entire, the handle, one Ultimate Clean head, a hard travel case and a charger, and the dimensions and weight stand printed, 9.25 inches and 4.4 ounces with the head on, proof the house can print numbers when it chooses to. The warranty is printed entire on the product page, two years against defects, with the exclusions read out, and a 30-day money-back guarantee stands beside it: longevity documentation of the first rank. The iO Series also stands in the ADA's own Seal directory under its own listing, the seal a document, not a slogan. Then the two silences, and they are the card's whole deduction. No movement figure stands anywhere on the maker's US page: the drive is oscillations with micro-vibrations, a description, and the oscillations are never counted. And no battery life stands in days: the cell is a long-lasting lithium ion, an adjective where Philips prints a fortnight and BURST prints nine months. A buyer comparing this brush against the winner on the two numbers the category runs on, how fast and how long, finds both fields blank on the bigger house's page. The second price is printed, at least: the Ultimate Clean head at $15.99 a head on the maker's own store, $63.96 a year at the printed three-month interval, tied with its own Pro line as the shelf's dearest running cost.
$99.99 at the maker's own store, checked October 23, 2026 (the maker's standing offer takes $20 off in the cart; one Ultimate Clean head, a hard travel case and a charger in the box)
Buy · $99.99 at Oral-B| Specification & claim honesty | 24 / 30 |
| Mechanism & head record | 17 / 20 |
| Fit & format | 18 / 20 |
| Value | 11 / 15 |
| Longevity & service | 13 / 15 |
Oral-B Pro 1000
The plain record, and the only model name on this shelf that an outside authority prints in its own document. The ADA's Oscillating-Rotating-Pulsating listing names the Pro 1000 among its accepted models, beside the iO Series under its own listing: the seal position here is not a maker's claim but a line in the association's directory, which is the only place this page grades seals from. The maker's own page prints a working record of the older school. The drive is a 3D cleaning action, oscillates, rotates and pulsates, the CrossAction head's bristles angled at sixteen degrees. The pressure sensor acts rather than signals: push too hard and the pulsations stop, the mechanism printed as behaviour. The in-handle timer pulses every thirty seconds toward the two minutes, three modes stand named, Daily Clean, Whitening and Sensitive, and the head compatibility list is printed entire, seven head families named, with the exclusion stated in the same breath, does not fit iO brush heads, the honest sentence most compatibility lists omit. The warranty stands printed entire on the page, two years, exclusions and all. The deductions are the house's habits at this tier. No movement figure stands on the maker's page: the 8,800 oscillations a minute attached to the Pro line lives in retail and manual copy, and is graded as that copy, not as the maker's page. No battery life stands in days either: the page offers a standard charger and battery where the rest of the shelf prints numbers, the retail figure of about ten days being nobody's first-party document. The page cannot quite agree with itself on the modes, either, its own feature tags filing the brush under one brushing mode against the copy's three, a small untidiness printed as found. The head price is the maker's retail $15.99, the shelf's dearest second price, $63.96 a year. What the $55 buys is the named model, the acting sensor and the printed term, a record a buyer can verify line by line, which on this shelf is rarer than power.
$55.00 at the maker's own store, checked October 23, 2026
Buy · $55.00 at Oral-B| Specification & claim honesty | 23 / 30 |
| Mechanism & head record | 16 / 20 |
| Fit & format | 17 / 20 |
| Value | 12 / 15 |
| Longevity & service | 12 / 15 |
Philips Sonicare 4100 Series HX3681/24
The fortnight with its working shown. The 4100's page prints a 14-day battery life, and the maker's documents carry the basis beneath it, two periods of two-minute brushings a day on the standard mode: a figure a buyer can recompute against his own mornings, which is what a basis is for, and the discipline the nine months two cards down declines. The rest of the printed record is the line's machinery at half the winner's price. The pressure sensor is described as a mechanism: push too hard and the brush makes a pulsing sound and reduces its vibrations until the pressure comes off. The SmarTimer and the 30-second QuadPacer stand printed, the BrushSync reminder watches the head's three months and lights when they are spent, two intensities stand named, and the warranty stands on the page at two years. The deductions are the family's. No movement figure stands on this model's own US page as read: the 62,000 brush movements belong to the 6100's table, and this page does not borrow them, so the entry brush's motor is as unnumbered as Oral-B's, a silence the card grades rather than fills. The maker's own store is mid-retirement around the model: the HX3681/24 stood out of stock there at the check while its siblings, the /27 and the /28, stood marked discontinued, and the brush is bought at Target's shelf, $49.99 against the maker's $49.96. And the seal position is the family's history, not its present: the 4100's ADA listing was reported withdrawn in 2026 and no Sonicare stands in the association's current directory, so nothing in this score rests on it. The heads run at the C2 shelf price with the winner's. What remains is the cheapest complete Philips record, a basis under its battery and a term on its page, bought through a retailer because its maker's door is shut.
$49.96 at the maker's own store, checked October 23, 2026 (that variant stood out of stock there at the check; Target's shelf sells the brush at $49.99)
Buy · $49.96 at Philips| Specification & claim honesty | 23 / 30 |
| Mechanism & head record | 15 / 20 |
| Fit & format | 16 / 20 |
| Value | 12 / 15 |
| Longevity & service | 11 / 15 |
quip Rev Oscillating Toothbrush
The sibling that numbers itself. quip built its name on the unnumbered brush two cards down, and the Rev is the house answering the category's question in the category's terms: a round head that oscillates, rotates and pulses, the action words of the Oral-B record, and then the figure Oral-B does not print. Its maker's own FAQ states 9,630 oscillations per minute, the only oscillation figure on this shelf and the honest unit, the whole stroke counted once. Around the figure the record is printed with the house's usual care. The pressure sensor carries a red light indicator and pulse alerts, described as behaviour. Three intensities stand named, gentle, daily and intense. The two-minute timer pulses every thirty seconds and shuts the brush off at the end. The battery runs up to thirty days per charge, with the basis in the maker's footnote, the gentle setting at two minutes twice a day. A travel case stands in the box. And the Rev stands in the ADA's own directory as the quip 360 Oscillating Toothbrush, a fourth record on this shelf with the association's document behind it. The deductions are about where the record lives. The figure stands in an FAQ answer rather than in a specification table, and the product page itself runs on the house's comparative copy, outperforms the competition, graded as copy. No warranty term stands on the product page as read: the house's cover runs through its refill plan terms, an arrangement the card grades as printed, and a buyer who wants a term in years has to leave the page to find the plan's small print. The heads ride the maker's refill plan at the five-dollar class price its Sonic sibling prints. It seats fifth on the strength of one honest number and a directory entry, held back by a longevity record that has to be chased.
$50 at the maker's own store, checked October 23, 2026
Buy · $50 at quip| Specification & claim honesty | 24 / 30 |
| Mechanism & head record | 15 / 20 |
| Fit & format | 16 / 20 |
| Value | 12 / 15 |
| Longevity & service | 9 / 15 |
BURST Pro 2.0 Sonic Toothbrush
The longest battery on the shelf, printed without its working. The Pro 2.0's page states up to nine months of battery life on a single charge, six times the next longest figure here, and on the page as read no usage basis stands beside it: not the mode, not the minutes a day, not the setting the nine months were counted on. Philips prints a fortnight and shows its arithmetic; quip prints a month and footnotes it. BURST prints nine months and moves on, and the honesty row grades the missing basis, not the number, which this desk has no instrument to test. The machine around the claim is printed better. The smart pressure sensor slows the brush mid-cycle when pushed too hard and returns it when the pressure lifts, described in the maker's manual as behaviour. The LED display scores the brush after two minutes. Five modes stand named, a two-minute timer runs at thirty-second intervals, the box is itemised, brush, head, charging base, USB-C cable and a magnetic wall mount, and the heads are the shelf's cheapest first-party refill among the rechargeables, $8 at the maker's store on a twelve-week interval printed in the manual, $32 a year. The warranty is the card's second condition: a lifetime that runs while the buyer subscribes to replacement heads, stated on the product page and as a limited lifetime in the manual, a term with a rent attached, graded as the condition it is, and cancelled-cover arrangements are where such terms go quiet. The motor is the third silence: the page calls it the house's most powerful yet, one of the most powerful on the market, and prints no figure on its own page, the 33,000 vibrations a minute under its name standing in review copy. To the house's credit, its plaque claim carries its basis in a footnote, the whitening mode over thirty days, which is more arithmetic than the battery gets. No ADA Seal stands anywhere in the record, and none is claimed in the documents as read. The dearest door on the shelf buys the longest claim and the thinnest file.
$123.99 at the maker's own store, checked October 23, 2026
Buy · $123.99 at BURST| Specification & claim honesty | 19 / 30 |
| Mechanism & head record | 15 / 20 |
| Fit & format | 16 / 20 |
| Value | 10 / 15 |
| Longevity & service | 11 / 15 |
quip Sonic Toothbrush
The founding refusal, printed honestly. The Sonic is the brush quip built the house on: one sensitive sonic mode in a category that sells modes as value, a two-minute timer with thirty-second pulses and an automatic shutoff, and a record that states its limits in the same type as its claims. The battery runs up to three months on one replaceable AAA, the basis standing in the maker's footnote, two minutes twice a day, the only battery here a buyer can change at a pharmacy. The head carries soft bristles and a tongue scraper, the mount doubles as a travel cover, and the refill plan is the record's best sentence: a fresh head every three months at five dollars, twenty dollars a year, the cheapest second price on this shelf by a wide margin, printed where a buyer shops rather than in a terms page. The warranty is printed on its own page at one year limited, the shelf's shortest fixed term, stated plainly, with the house's lifetime cover reserved for its refill plan in the terms, the condition disclosed in the same documents. And the $25 brush carries a document the $124 brush two cards up does not: the non-rechargeable quip stands in the ADA's own Seal directory with the association's statement behind it. The deductions are the format's, and they are printed rather than hidden. No pressure sensor stands in this page's feature list at all, the sensor its own Ultra and Rev siblings print; a buyer who brushes hard gets no warning from this handle. No vibration figure stands in the maker's documents: the 15,000 RPM attached to its name lives in retail copy, and this card grades the maker's silence, not the retailer's number. Its plaque claim, up to 120 percent more, is asterisked to a manual-brush comparison, the basis printed, the claim graded as a claim. It seats last of the ranked seven on machinery, and its document is cleaner than three of the records above it, which is the shelf in one sentence.
From $25 at the maker's own store, checked October 23, 2026 (plastic at $25, metal at $40; one AAA in the box, heads on the maker's refill plan at $5)
Buy · $25 at quip| Specification & claim honesty | 23 / 30 |
| Mechanism & head record | 12 / 20 |
| Fit & format | 13 / 20 |
| Value | 13 / 15 |
| Longevity & service | 9 / 15 |
Sent home: hum by Colgate Smart Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush
Era pricing $69.99 for the rechargeable kit at the maker's store in its selling years (no pill on a sent-home card, and no live first-party door for the adult brush stood open at the check).
The smart brush whose maker has stopped standing behind the record. Colgate's own shop, read on the check date, sells the hum name only as a kids' manual brush; the adult hum, the app-connected brush sold on guided brushing, smile points and a light-up head, survives in clearance channels, in its manuals and in dated review copy, with no live first-party product page this desk could open and grade. What remains of its record is secondary and is graded as secondary: ten days of battery and a two-year warranty in its manual-era and review copy, three modes and a two-minute timer in the same, 30,000 brush strokes a minute in review copy, heads at ten dollars for two in the era's pricing, a figure that, read in its own unit, is a stroke count the ProtectiveClean's 62,000 movements would double-count past without ever being faster in the way a buyer assumes. None of it is contemptible, and the brush itself was a serious piece of design in its years. The failure is documentary and it is structural: a page that grades makers' own current documents cannot seat a record its maker has retired, and a smart brush's smart half was a service, an app and an account, which stand or fall with the maker's willingness to keep the doors open. The doors are shut. The hum is sent home with its era's numbers attached and labelled as the copy they now are.
The numbers the makers print
Every cell below is the maker's own published record as read on October 23, 2026, the ADA positions from the association's own Seal directory read the same day. A cell that says none printed is itself a finding, and figures that stand only in retail or review copy are labelled as that copy wherever they appear.
| Toothbrush | Movement figure, as printed | Battery, as printed | Pressure sensor & timer, as printed | Head: interval & price | Warranty, as printed | ADA Seal directory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philips ProtectiveClean 6100 | Up to 62,000 brush movements/min, in the maker's specification table | Up to 2 weeks; basis in the maker's documents, 2 periods of 2-minute brushings a day | Sensor vibrates the handle; SmarTimer 2 minutes, QuadPacer 30 seconds | 3 months, tracked by BrushSync; C2 heads $29.99 for two on the maker's accessory shelf | 2-year limited, in the specification table | Not standing in the directory as read; held in the ADA's earlier summary table |
| Oral-B iO Series 5 | None printed; oscillations with micro-vibrations, unnumbered | No figure in days; long-lasting lithium ion | Sensor lights too hard, too soft, just right; 2-minute timer; head tracker | Every 3 months; $15.99 a head on the maker's store | 2 years, printed entire on the page; 30-day money-back guarantee | The iO Series stands under its own listing |
| Oral-B Pro 1000 | None printed on the maker's page; 8,800 oscillations/min stands in retail and manual copy | No figure in days; a standard charger and battery | Sensor stops the pulsations; in-handle timer pulses every 30 seconds | Every 3 months; $15.99 a head on the maker's store | 2 years, printed entire on the page | Named in the ADA's Oscillating-Rotating-Pulsating listing |
| Philips Sonicare 4100 | None printed on the model's own page as read | 14 days; basis standing in the maker's documents | Sensor reduces the vibrations and sounds; SmarTimer and QuadPacer; BrushSync reminder | 3 months; C2 shelf price as the 6100 | 2 years, on the page | Not standing in the directory as read; listing reported withdrawn in 2026 |
| quip Rev | 9,630 oscillations/min, in the maker's own FAQ | Up to 30 days; basis in the maker's footnote | Red light and pulse alerts; 2-minute timer, 30-second pulses, auto shutoff | Every 3 months; $5 class on the maker's refill plan | No term on the product page as read; cover runs through the refill plan terms | Stands as the quip 360 Oscillating Toothbrush |
| BURST Pro 2.0 | None printed on the maker's page; 33,000 vibrations/min stands in review copy | Up to 9 months; no usage basis printed beside it on the page as read | Sensor slows the brush mid-cycle; 2-minute timer at 30-second intervals; brush score | Every 12 weeks, in the manual; $8 a head on the maker's store | Lifetime while subscribed to replacement heads, product page and manual | No seal; none claimed in the documents as read |
| quip Sonic | None printed in the maker's documents; 15,000 RPM stands in retail copy | Up to 3 months on one AAA; basis in the maker's footnote | No pressure sensor; 2-minute timer, 30-second pulses, auto shutoff | Every 3 months; $5 a head on the maker's refill plan | 1-year limited, on the page; lifetime cover on the refill plan in the terms | The non-rechargeable quip stands under its own listing |
| hum by Colgate (skip) | 30,000 brush strokes/min, in review copy only | 10 days, in manual-era and review copy | Sensor, 3 modes and 2-minute timer, in era copy | Every 3 months, in the manual; $10 for two, era pricing | 2 years, in review copy; the maker's store no longer sells the adult brush | Not standing in the directory as read |
| Toothbrush | Door | Door price | A year of heads |
|---|---|---|---|
| quip Sonic | quip | $25 | $20 (four heads at $5 on the plan) |
| Philips Sonicare 4100 | Philips / Target | $49.96 / $49.99 | $59.98 (two C2 two-packs at $29.99) |
| quip Rev | quip | $50 | $20 (four heads at $5 on the plan) |
| Oral-B Pro 1000 | Oral-B | $55.00 | $63.96 (four heads at $15.99) |
| Oral-B iO Series 5 | Oral-B | $99.99 | $63.96 (four heads at $15.99) |
| BURST Pro 2.0 | BURST | $123.99 | $32 (four heads at $8) |
| Philips ProtectiveClean 6100 | Target | $129.99 | $59.98 (two C2 two-packs at $29.99) |
| hum by Colgate (skip) | No live first-party door | $69.99 in era pricing | Not graded as a door |
Which one to buy
Buy the ProtectiveClean 6100 if the record is the purchase. It is the only brush here whose maker prints the whole file, figure, runtime, battery type, term, tracked head, on one page, and its deductions are retirements and a unit, not silences. Buy it at retail, Target's shelf, because the maker's own store is busy marking the line's variants no longer available. The C2 heads at $29.99 for two are the running cost to accept with it.
Buy the iO Series 5 if the sensor is the purchase. The three-state light is the most useful single mechanism printed on this shelf, and the warranty documentation is the best here. Accept the two blanks with open eyes: the drive is unnumbered and the battery is an adjective, and the heads are the shelf's dearest at $15.99.
Buy the Pro 1000 if the plain record at $55 is the purchase. The model the association's own directory names, a sensor that stops rather than signals, and a term printed entire. Its motor figure lives in other people's documents and its battery in nobody's, which the card grades and a buyer should know.
Buy the 4100 if the basis is the purchase. Fourteen days with the arithmetic shown, the line's machinery at the entry price, bought at Target while the maker's door stands shut. Its own page prints no motor figure, and the seal it once carried is history.
Buy the Rev if the honest unit is the purchase. The only oscillation figure a maker prints for its own brush, a lit sensor and a directory entry at $50, with the warranty term living in the plan's terms rather than on the page.
Buy the BURST Pro 2.0 if the battery is the purchase. Nine printed months and $8 heads are a real proposition at $123.99, bought knowing the nine months carry no printed basis, the motor no printed figure, and the lifetime a subscription condition.
Buy the quip Sonic if the minimum is the purchase. One mode, a five-dollar head, a one-year term printed where it is sold, a battery from a pharmacy shelf, and the association's document behind it. No sensor watches the pressure. That is the trade, and the page prints it.
Buy none of them off a figure a retailer printed. The 8,800, the 33,000 and the 15,000 RPM that circulate under these names are retail and review documents, not makers' records. The makers who want a number believed print it themselves, and on this shelf exactly two did.
How we tested (and what we rested)
Every score on this page grades published documents, read on October 23, 2026: each maker's own product page or shop where it could be read, each maker's own manual where the page ran thin, the maker's own FAQ where a figure lived there, the ADA's own Seal directory for every seal position, and the merchant shelf for every door price. Where a maker's store and a retailer's shelf disagreed, the card prints both and grades the maker's document. Where a figure stands only in retail or review copy, the card grades it as that copy and says so, in the numbers table and in the prose. Door prices are the checked prices of October 23, 2026 at the doors named; the maker's standing cart offer on the iO is noted on its card rather than netted into the price. Nothing here was charged, switched on, timed or put in a mouth.
Rested, and why: the Waterpik Sonic-Fusion class, a flosser hybrid that does a different job and would grade a different shelf. Oral-B's iO Series 3 and Series 9, the line's bookends; the Series 5 is the mid-series record the brief called for, and the line's habits are graded on it. Philips's DiamondClean and 7100 class, the flagship tier above the ProtectiveClean brief, and the Philips One, a travel-format brush that would grade its own shelf. BURST's Original and Curve, rested for the Pro 2.0, the house's current flagship record. quip's Ultra, the house's smart tier, rested for the Sonic and the Rev, which carry the house's two philosophies between them. Manual brushes are off this shelf by definition. The hum stands graded in full as the sent-home card rather than rested, because its record's retirement is itself the finding a buyer searching its name most needs.
The honesty paragraph
Nothing on this page was brushed with. No handle was charged, no timer was timed against a clock, no battery was run down, no head was worn to its reminder, and no score rests on a use claim of this desk's. Efficacy is graded nowhere on this page: plaque percentages, gum claims and cleaning results appear only as claims inside the documents graded, with the comparison and its basis printed where the maker prints them, and a clinical claim with an asterisk is graded as a claim with an asterisk. Every number above rests on a published document, the maker's own page, shop, manual or FAQ, the ADA's own directory, or the merchant shelf, each read on October 23, 2026 and cited on its card, and where a claim exists only in retail or review copy the card grades it as that copy. This Card is original Young Cotton research: every score was derived from the documents named, and no third-party ranking, review or roundup contributed a score, a row value or a verdict.
The sink shelf, graded: Card No. 124 ranked the nose hair trimmers on the same discipline, one numbered motor in a category of adjectives, and Card No. 122 ranked the mouthwashes, where the drug panel and the name on the bottle parted company. The toothbrush was the last motor on the shelf without a Card. It has one now, and its lesson is the shelf's: the number a buyer meets depends on which document he opens, so open the maker's.
Questions, answered plainly
Why does the Philips ProtectiveClean 6100 win a toothbrush ranking?
Because this page grades documents, and the 6100's is the most complete record on the shelf. Its maker's own page prints a full specification table: a speed, up to 62,000 brush movements a minute, an operating time, up to two weeks with its basis in the maker's documents, a battery type, and a warranty term, two-year limited, standing in the same table. Around the table stand the mechanisms a buyer otherwise has to take on trust: a pressure sensor that vibrates the handle, a two-minute SmarTimer with a 30-second QuadPacer, and BrushSync, a head that tracks its own use and lights a reminder when its three months are spent. No other record here prints all of it. Oral-B's two pages print their warranty terms entire and no movement figure and no battery life in days at all. The win is the table's completeness, and the card prints the deductions beside it: the variant sprawl on the maker's own store, and a seal that stood in the ADA's earlier summary and stands in its current directory no longer.
Which of these toothbrushes print a movement figure, and what do the units mean?
Two makers of eight print a figure for the model being sold. Philips prints up to 62,000 brush movements a minute for the ProtectiveClean 6100, and the unit is the finding: a movement counts one pass of the bristles, so the figure is two per stroke, twice the stroke count a buyer comparing it against a strokes figure would assume, and Philips's page does not print the stroke count beside it. quip prints 9,630 oscillations a minute for its Rev in its own FAQ, the oscillation counting the whole stroke, the smaller and more honest unit. The rest sell the motor as language. Oral-B prints no movement figure on either of its US pages as read, its iO drive described as oscillations with micro-vibrations and its Pro drive as a 3D cleaning action; the 8,800 oscillations a minute attached to the Pro line stands in retail and manual copy, not on the maker's page. BURST calls its motor its most powerful yet and prints no number on its own page; the 33,000 vibrations a minute attached to its name stands in review copy. quip's Sonic prints no figure at all in its maker's documents; the 15,000 RPM attached to it stands in retail copy.
Which of these print a battery life in days?
Five makers of eight print one in their own current documents, and the figures run from fourteen days to nine months. Both Philips records print up to two weeks, Philips's basis standing in its documents as two periods of two-minute brushings a day. BURST prints up to nine months for the Pro 2.0, the shelf's longest figure, with no usage basis printed beside it on the page as read. quip prints up to three months for the Sonic on one AAA and up to thirty days for the Rev, each carrying its basis in the maker's footnote. Oral-B prints no battery life in days for either of its brushes on its US pages as read: the iO's battery is long-lasting and the Pro's is a standard charger and battery, adjectives where the rest of the shelf prints numbers. The hum's ten days stands in the manual-era and review copy of a brush its maker's store no longer sells, and is graded as that copy, on the card that was sent home.
What does the ADA Seal stand on, on this shelf?
Less than the shelf's history suggests, and the authority is the ADA's own directory, read on October 23, 2026, not the makers' copy. Four of the eight records stand in it: the Oral-B iO Series under its own listing, the Oral-B Pro 1000 named in the association's Oscillating-Rotating-Pulsating listing, and both quips, the Sonic as the non-rechargeable brush and the Rev as the 360 oscillating brush. No Sonicare stands in the directory as read: the ProtectiveClean carried the seal in the ADA's own earlier summary table, and the 4100's listing was reported withdrawn in 2026, so the seal is graded as Philips's history, not its present. BURST carries no seal and claims none in the documents as read. And almost none of this stands where a buyer shops: the makers' own product pages on this shelf print dentist-recommended superlatives, and the seal itself lives in the association's directory and on packaging, a document a buyer has to go and read, which is what this page did.
Why was the hum by Colgate sent home?
Because its maker has retired the record. Colgate's own shop, read on the check date, sells the hum name only as a kids' manual brush; the adult smart brush that was sold on its app, its guided brushing and its smile points stands in clearance channels and in review copy, with no live first-party product page this desk could open and grade. What survives of its record is secondary: ten days of battery in its manual-era copy, three modes and a two-minute timer in the same, 30,000 brush strokes a minute in review copy, heads at ten dollars for two in the same era's pricing. A page that grades makers' documents cannot seat a record whose documents its maker no longer publishes, and a smart brush whose smart half was a service stands or falls with the service. The brush itself was never the problem. The shelf it can no longer document is.
Did you brush with any of these?
No. Nothing on this page was charged, switched on, timed or put in a mouth, and no score rests on a use claim. Every number grades published documents: the maker's own product page or shop where it could be read, the maker's own manual where the page ran thin, the ADA's own Seal directory for the seal positions, and the merchant shelf, all read on October 23, 2026. Efficacy is graded nowhere on this page: plaque percentages, gum claims and cleaning results are graded only where a document claims them, and graded as claims, with the comparison and its basis printed where the maker prints them. Where a claim exists only in retail or review copy, the card grades it as that copy, and says so.