by Dee Delaney

Created on: November 20, 2009

When my old electric toothbrush started to make sad, groaning noises every time it saw my teeth, I started to look around for a replacement. My goal was simple - to find a toothbrush on special offer! Having searched Boots (surprisingly devoid of cut price toothbrushes), I found the Oral B Vitality Precision Clean at Sainsburys for half price. I paid 14.74 for it, and went home a happy woman.

In addition to its magnificent price, the toothbrush had a small round single head, which I prefer as it seems to reach the corners of my mouth more easily than larger heads. It also had a timer, which my dentist has told me is essential to ensure that I brush for the correct amount of time.

The packaging had the following attractive selling points:
* Rechargeable
* 2 brush heads supplied
* 2 minute timer
* Gets at hard-to-reach areas
* High speed oscillating rotating motion

This ticked every box for me - even the spare brush head, which costs a lot to replace now days. The brush also had a 2 year warranty.

~~First use~~

The first time I used my new Oral B vitality, I could immediately feel that it was more effective than my old brush. The oscillation was more vigorous and my teeth felt cleaner. I had owned my previous brush for over 5 years, but had not realised how inefficient it had become.

The brush itself is very well designed; the handle is two tone blue - the darker tone is a shiny casing and the lighter tone a rubberised, ribbed grip. The on-off control is a large white area on the handle, also rubberised. The brush feels satisfyingly weighty in the hand, and would be easy to grip if I was elderly or had arthritis.

As I have said before, the head is small and round, making it easy to get to wisdom teeth and around awkward areas. A small round head is recommended by the British Dental Heath Foundation (www.dentalhealth.org.uk) for this reason, and I find cleaning with a small head much more efficient than the larger or double heads that have recently appeared on the market.

I looked forward to using the timer, as I wanted to be sure that I was brushing for long enough. The British Dental Heath Foundation recommend brushing for two minutes, twice a day - and the two minute timer on this brush is perfect for this. The two minute interval is indicated by two short stutters in the rotation of the head. On using my brush for the first time, my Initial thoughts were that the timer had broken! I always prided myself on thorough brushing, and my dentist has often commented

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