I bought this for my wife who is a very heavy sleeper and who's actually lost a couple jobs from not being able to wake up in the morning in time. She's not deaf or anything, but she can totally sleep through a 'loud' alarm clock.
The buzzer:
I bought this based on the descriptions and other reviews of the several different models of this clock which made it sound very LOUD (wake the neighbors-type loud) which I hoped would be enough to startle her out of sleep. Unfortunately, this isn't noticeably louder than many other clocks I've had. My first impression of the buzzer was "That's IT?!" It has an adjustable tone which is neat, but still that doesn't make it any louder and only slightly more annoying. My wife wasn't impressed with the volume either. While adjusting it we didn't even have to really raise our voices over it to hear each other.
The vibrator:
This is the part that I'm counting on to wake her up. It's pretty strong and I'm surprised that something so small can shake so violently. If you put it in the pillow that you're using it's liable to cause brain damage after a while, but if you push your pillow more than a few inches away -or grab another pillow- it's useless. It works pretty good in between the mattress's though even though we have a pretty thick mattress on top. It won't rattle your teeth that way, but it should be enough to wake her up after just a minute or two.
The construction doesn't feel any better or worse than most clocks to me and it's easy enough to figure out how to set and use. I would have given it a higher star rating had it of just been louder.