Lifestyle, food and drink, and our family life and travel adventures.
I have used an electric toothbrush on and off for a few years now, and whilst I do always love the clean feeling they give me and enjoy using them, they end up running out of charge a bit too often and I can’t be bothered to wait for 12 hours or so to be able to use it again. It’s just always been a bit of a faff that I don’t have time (or patience!) for.
Introducing the electric toothbrush that only takes 3 hours to charge, and lasts for about a week between charges. It also looks beautiful, has a magnetic charger, a smart pressure sensor to stop you brushing too hard, as well as a frictionless magnetic drive to give a deep but gentle clean, and so much more.
The new Oral-B iO toothbrushes are much more than just a standard upgrade to Oral-B’s collection of electric toothbrushes. The Oral-B iO comes following 6 years of research and gives Oral-B’s best ever clean and comes with lots of cool, techy stuff.
I was really excited to try it and I have been lucky enough to get to test it out over the last couple of months so I could let you know all about it.
First of all, the iO is super sleek-looking. It comes in 3 lovely shades and I have the Black Onyx which is the colour I would have chosen myself. It’s so modern and swanky and I really like how it looks!
It has 6 different modes so you can personalise it to what you need each time, or you can leave it on the same setting and it will remain on that one. The modes are daily clean, sensitive, whiten, gum care, intense and super sensitive.
I started off using daily clean for a day or so but I found that it made my mouth a bit sore as it wasn’t used to such a deep clean, so I just changed to sensitive for a week and since then I’ve gone back to daily clean and it’s perfect. My teeth honestly feel so clean after I’ve brushed them now – way cleaner than before – and the first time I used it I felt like I’d been to the dentist and had them cleaned!
The Oral-B iO uses a new frictionless magnetic drive meaning that all of the energy is directed to the bristles to generate new micro-vibrations. This provides an enhanced brushing experience as the brush gives a really deep clean whilst gliding past every tooth surface with a smoother and quieter clean, so it effectively removes plaque, debris and bacteria.
It is definitely a lot quieter than my old electric toothbrush which is really nice and it feels more gentle as it vibrates in my mouth if that makes any sense!!
The new iO brushes provide 6x more effective plaque removal along the gum line which leads to 100% healthier gums in one week compared to a manual toothbrush.
The iO 8 Black Onyx toothbrush that I have comes with a matching travel case with room for two heads which is so handy, as well as a magnetic charger. I love the new type of charger — the toothbrush just sits comfortably on top of it and even better, it does a full charge in just 3 hours! That is one of the biggest pluses for me of the iO. It means if it gets low whilst I’m brushing (which it lets you know!) then I can pop it onto charge and it is ready for me to use the next time I need to clean my teeth.
There are 3 slightly different versions of the iO brushes – the 7, 8 and 9 with slightly different features and price points, the 9 being the highest spec and a bit more expensive. I have the iO 8 which is perfect for me, but for someone who travels a lot the iO 9 would be a great option as it also has a chargeable travel case which is a great feature!
When you first pick up your toothbrush it says ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Good Evening’ to you on the screen which is cute — I do like a friendly toothbrush. And then once you turn it on a timer starts so that you can make sure you brush for the recommended 2 minutes. It also gives a slight buzz at every 30 seconds so you can switch areas in your mouth and a longer buzz at 2 minutes. I really like this feature and I find it less intrusive than with the older Oral-B electric toothbrushes.
The timer has definitely helped me pay more attention to how long I’m brushing for — I want to see the smiley face on the screen, not the sad one!! And it’s made me realise that when I’m in a rush I often don’t quite brush for long enough.
The Bluetooth-enabled app is a great addition and is something I probably use around once a week. I actually find it quite fun to use as you have to try and brush your teeth well enough so that all of the teeth on the app turn white and sparkle! It’s really clever as it recognises all of the areas of your mouth using AI showing you any areas that you have missed. Last time I went to the dentist she told me that I had started missing a particular area so now I can use the app to make sure it becomes habit again. You also can get medals for particular achievements so it’s quite fun and interactive!
The app also links with the Health section on iPhones so you can see how successfully you are brushing on there too.
The Oral-B iO app also keeps track of how much brush time you should have left with that toothbrush head so that you know when you should change heads, which I think is very clever and makes it a lot easier to keep track of. I never normally have a clue when I last changed my toothbrush or head and just relied on how splayed out the head looked!
There are also other functions on the app like being able to follow different dental care journeys such as whitening or gum health so you can follow along with what it suggests to improve your issue, as well as a Gum Bleeding Tracker so you can monitor any bleeding.
I love this feature and I think it is such a great addition. The iO brushes all have an Enhanced Smart Pressure Sensor which shows green when you are brushing perfectly with the right amount of pressure and red if you brush too hard. I have always struggled with brushing too hard and so my gums have receded over the years and as we get older this is something we all need to be careful of (hence the ‘long in the tooth’ saying!). So this is really helping me to brush more gently and hopefully will really make a difference long term.
The only thing I would change about it is that I would prefer for the head to be slightly smaller like the old Oral-B toothbrush heads. Because I have an impacted wisdom tooth one side bits can get stuck there quite easily and a smaller head would fit in there better. However, that area does still feel really clean after I brush and I haven’t had any problems since using the iO so it may not be an issue and just something for me to get used to.
There’s no getting away from it; this is an expensive electric toothbrush. The iO 8 that I have is currently £224.99 but it is usually £450 so it’s an investment and a half. Boots currently have it at half price for £224.99 as an introductory offer: here. You can also currently get it on Amazon for £224.99 and using their instalments pay scheme which I have used before and means you can spread the cost without any extra charges. It does seem to come with a different case when you buy the Black Onyx one from Amazon though for some reason (unless the photo is wrong) – it’s not the hard one like I have that protects it really well.
I’ll be honest I was a bit shocked at the full price and didn’t expect it to be that much. It’s a lot to spend on a toothbrush. But at the same time our oral health is so important and can affect our overall health, and it is an excellent toothbrush. I don’t think I would pay £450 but I would consider it at half price as it is now if I could afford it. I do think it will constantly be on half-price though, to be honest, as the full price is very high in my opinion. But I’ve had my previous Oral-B toothbrush for over 10 years so I’ve found that they do last brilliantly.
Overall all of the features of the new Oral-B iO brush make for a really great electric toothbrush. My teeth feel so nice and clean after every time I brush and the different modes are super useful to have for different days depending on how my mouth is feeling. My most favourite features are the pressure sensor as that is something I struggle to manage usually, and the fact that it does a full charge in just 3 hours.
It’s not the most important thing but I love how it looks — all of the 3 colours – Black Onyx, Violet Ametrine and White Alabaster for the iO 8 are lovely but my favourite is the black one that I have as it looks so modern and different to other brushes I’ve had in the past.
The iO really enhances the teeth-brushing experience and your mouth health overall, and I think it is a really brilliant and high-tech toothbrush. It gives a really deep clean whilst still being gentle and the various modes are so useful to have. My teeth feel so much cleaner now and I actually look forward to cleaning them now which I certainly never did before!
I was provided with the Oral-B iO 8 toothbrush to review, but all words and opinions are my own. See my full disclosure policy here. #HelloToiO #OralBiO
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
Contact: [email protected]
