Sonicare PL-4 (4700) Sonic Toothbrush

Spring 2002 Dental Visit, after using Sonicare for 5 months: My hygienist complimented me on the great job I'm doing. No plaque nor bleeding gums. :-)

I'm achieving much better results with the Sonicare than with manual brushing, for 2 reasons: First, there's no way I come close to 31,000 brush strokes per minute by hand. Second, I rarely brushed for 2 full minutes with a manual toothbrush. I like the 30 second timer beep feature for each quadrant of the mouth, and brush them in this order: upper outer surface, lower outer, bottom teeth chewing surface + inside, upper teeth chewing surface + inside. Then I go in for overtime and brush my upper and lower gums. When I'm done, I hold the brush bristle side down and push the on button to wisk off the water. Every time I use the Sonicare, my teeth and gums feel professionally cleaned. Plus it's fun to use and I like the fact it has a plastic cover for the bristles.

I took the Sonicare on vacation for a week, and it held its charge just fine.

My main complaint is that the battery is not replaceable, forcing people to replace their Sonicare after several years and filling up the landfills with more toothbrushes than necessary. I grumble about the cost of new brush heads, but this toothbrush is so good, it's well worth the cost. BTW, it's important to regularly unscrew the toothbrush head and rinse off toothpaste that's accumulated between the nut and the head, as recommended in the instructions.

P.S. I have 6 friends who also have a Sonicare. I asked each one how they liked their toothbrush, and they all raved about it and the excellent results they're experiencing.

Since we purchased this toothbrush, I've had the opportunity to use the PL-1 (thanks to the removeable brush heads, using a friend's toothbrush is no longer an issue). The pauses in vibration over the course of two minutes that the PL-4 gives is a great boon for me. I like it better than the simple shutoff of the PL-1 after two minutes. When I use the PL-1, I tend to rush through my brushing and find that I'm done before the toothbrush is. When I use the PL-4, I'm much better at completely brushing each section of my mouth and I find that I'm much more likely to continue brushing even after the unit has turned off just in case I feel I've missed a spot or two. I don't do that with the PL-1 model.

Getting used to a vibrating toothbrush was...interesting. For me, it tickled a bit. To be honest, it was rather startling at first to feel vibrations througout my mouth, on my gums especially, and a little into my sinuses because they're so near everything else in my head. Not painful, but very different. I suspect that people with tender mouths will really want to follow the directions they give you with the toothbrush to be sure they don't discourage themselves from using it again.

My teeth have always been reasonably healthy, but my gums have always been an issue for me. And going to the dentist in the past only created serious problems in that regard. That is, cleanings were excrutiating. I didn't want to go and I avoided it as often as possible. After two years of using this toothbrush, my teeth remain healthy with no losses or fillings, my gums have actually improved their health, cleanings are annoying but no longer unbearable, and my dentist thanks me. I've seen my xrays and they've shown improvement in bone health too. And while I don't fully understand how it's possible, I find it fascinating that simply changing a toothbrush can make this much difference.

My husband pushed us into buying this rather expensive "toy." At just under 100$US at the time we bought it, even the 20% off coupon we had didn't make me all that happy. I thought I'd regret paying that much money for something my dentist would give me for free, but having used the Sonicare PL-4 and seen the results for both of us, I can firmly say to friends and family that your dentist, your teeth, and your gums will thank you for spending this kind of money.