Customer Reviews

Oral-B Precision Clean Brush Head (4 ct.)

5 star:		(98)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(77)

 

 

Dentists all over the country are recommending the Oral-B electric toothbrush. There are several reasons. It does the work for you, vibrating thousands of times a second, massaging your gums, it lets you clean your teeth without scraping your gums with a toothbrush, which can cause them to recede and bleed, and it reaches between your teeth to catch plaque and germs. This is a wonderful toothbrush, and I recommend it. However, if you want a review of a toothbrush, you'll read the toothbrush page. This is a page for replacement heads.

There's a lot of confusion about replacement heads for Oral B electric toothbrushes on Amazon, and I just want to give you all some facts. There are only three kinds of heads for ALL Oral-B electric toothbrushes. Flexisoft EB17, Extrasoft EB17, and Ortho OD17. I prefer Flexisoft EB17, which is what this item is. (The Extrasoft is a little too soft, and the Ortho is overpriced)

The reason I mention this is that the prices are all over the board for what is the same product. For example, this listing is for four Flexisoft EB17 heads for $24.99 (The EB17-4 just means there are four of them). There are other offers through Amazon partners for this exact same item for $12.99. Make sure you find the best deal, because they're all the exact same product, listed multiple times at different prices!

I purchased this Oral-B Precision Clean 4 pack replacement head, I highly doubt if this is original Oral-B product. After few weeks of light use, the brush head became loose and wobbling causing extra noise, it pinched my lips and tongue. I am on the 3rd brush head now (out of the 4 pack I bought), they all broke the same way.

I remembered I bought the 2 or 3 pack replacement brush head from Target before, they worked exactly like the original, but expensive. That's why it was so tempting to get this cheap "thought to be original" alternative. Be aware!

This review is about the Oral-B Flexisoft replacement heads. Coupled with the Braun electric toothbrushes, this is one of the most effective aids to oral hygiene ever developed. My introduction to Oral-B goes back over 27 years to a USAF basic training briefing; a dental technician held up an Oral-B toothbrush with medium bristles and said "this is the toothbrush you need if you want to keep your teeth" or some such statement like that. Well, I haven't lost one yet.

The motorized mechanicals of the toothbrush do most of the work while you guide the oscillating round head around and over your pearly whites. While the heads are undeniably pricey when looked at just in dollars and cents, there is value in the fact that the total package actually makes a rather mundane chore a little more fun while actually living up to the claim that it does a better job on your teeth than manual brushing.

Since I've always believed the entire surface area of the toothbrush head was meant to be covered with toothpaste and the size of the head on these is smaller than the average brush, I know I'm using less toothpaste to do the same job. While this is no big deal, the long term economic benefit is plaque under control, healthy gums and a bright smile full of natural teeth. It's kind of hard to deny it works since my dentist has confirmed the positive results upon direct examination.

Just be careful what model of these brush heads you are selecting and watch the pricing. Oral-B uses a kind of color code for the bristles, and the ones that have the colored indicator bristles in a line with the shaft are the Flexisoft model that seems to equate to medium hardness.

Enjoy life!

I had read a few bad reviews of these items before purchasing them. Like those reviewers before me, I found it was hard to ignore the low price. So I asked myself, "How bad can they be"?
The brush heads I received looked correct when compared to the brush heads I purchased locally (at much greater expense). When using them, however, I notice that the motion of the head is not nearly as controlled as the retail example. On the local retail version, the motion of the head is very well constrained to just an oscillating motion (partial rotations, back and forth). These brush heads have very poor motion constraint. The circular brush can easily "slide" around on its base which can very easily pinch your cheeks and/or lips (sometimes quite painfully).
Not only that, but the oscillating motion is much weaker resulting in a worse quality brushing. As poor as the action of these brush heads is, I can only imagine that they are a cheap "knock-off", more interested in looking like the original than acting like it.
My advice is to pay the retail price for the real brush heads. Your mouth and your dentist will thank you.

The first two replacement heads exploded at the back of the plastic head and a little metal pin dislodged in my mouth while I was brushing. Yesterday (12/15/08,) I spoke to a rep. at Amazon.com and they were going to contact the manufacturer and get a replacement pack shipped to me. They said they have not experienced this problem before. As long as the second shipment is fine, I'm okay with this purchase. I do appreciate the personal phone call from the Amazon.com tech.

Rick Brandt

The head on the replacement brush became loose and wobbly after exactly 2 months of use on the first head that I've just replaced again. These appear to be made with lesser quality than other replacements I've used.

The first brush head started making excess noise and suddenly lost its little metal pin within four uses. I chalked it up to one bad product and put the second one on. Within days that one did the same thing and was pinching the inside of my mouth. So I tried the third brush head. This one actually came apart into two pieces right in my mouth after two or three uses. When the fourth brush head started sounding like the first two had before their pins fell out, I decided this was more than a simple fluke and asked for instructions to return them. The seller has said I will receive a refund but I just sent them back a few days ago. I now assume these were factory rejects and I was not made aware of that before my purchase. I will not buy these online again. I have never had a problem with many of the same product purchased in the store.

don't buy these, they are cheaper, sure, but I bought them and each one of them broke (the moving brush part came loose) after about 2 weeks, far before the bristles were showing any sign of wear, so actually they turned out to be way more expensive then had I paid more and bought the Oral-B brand!!

Braun must have changed manufacturers or something. Amazon claims that "The four replacement brush heads in this pack fit all Braun Oral-B electric toothbrushes." But the hole in the brush head that fits onto the toothbrush seems to be a fraction of a millimeter bigger because it barely stays on the toothbrush. The toothbrush does work, however. I have two identical Oral-B 3D excel toothbrushes purchased on 8/20/01. To make the batteries last, I use one unit for 6 months or so, then I switch to the other unit. I run the battery down to zero on the one I'm not using on my teeth by using it with an old brush head to scrub stuff in the bathroom or kitchen. Only after the battery is completely run down do I recharge it. Used brush heads--including a very old one I found while moving furniture--fit both units perfectly, so it's not a question of wear on the toothbrush handle itself.

Some reviewers have suggested that these are counterfeits, but that's hard to imagine: there could not be that huge a market to justify the expense of setting up a factory to duplicate something as specialized as this. It's even harder to imagine Amazon.com selling it. It's more likely that Braun outsourced the product or had some kind of cost cutting change in their factory.

There were 130-odd reviews when I did this one, and I notice that virtually all of the really bad reviews are relatively recent, and that the really good reviews are years and years old; taking my own observations into account, I am certain that the product has changed, and not for the better.

I have used Oral-B Precision Clean brushes for many years and never had a problem - until I got a pack from Amazon this sprint. Either this is a complete fake, or there was a huge fault at the factory - causing all of these 1-star reviews. I experiences the same problems as all others did: all brush heads became loose, metal rods fell off, pinched my and my wife's lips several times, until the whole brush head would fall apart. DO NOT BUY THIS! Amazon needs to do something about this product and manufacturer!!!