The Oral B iO
This post contains ad affiliate links (denoted by a ‘*’) & gifted items (denoted by ‘ad – gifted)
Oh no, not another review?! *face palm* By now many in the dental community may be tiring of hearing about the NEW Oral B iO electric toothbrush, so many of us had the chance to be gifted one a few weeks ahead of its public launch and social media went ….WILD!! (To be honest, wild might be a bit of an understatement)
So here I am, jumping onto the bandwagon, because the truth is the Oral B iO deserves every bit of praise that it’s been receiving.
It’s been a while since dental professionals got this excited about a product. Oral B is a well-known brand within the industry, popular for their oscillating-rotating electric toothbrushes and their stannous fluoride toothpastes. But like every company, Oral B like to reinvent themselves every few years to keep up with latest trends, their last electric toothbrush model took the form of the Genius X but let me explain how the iO is different;
- Magnetic iO technology – You can see where the brush gets its name now, right? A new motor in this brush has revolutionised the cleaning method, the brush is still considered to be an oscillating rotating type but with a linear magnetic drive system that now directs the cleaning energy to every individual bristle on the small, round brush head. With this new motor, the brush tends to be less noisy too (an advantage to those that hated using the old models first thing in the morning!)
- The Design – comparing the iO to the Genius X, the toothbrush is slimmer and sleeker in form, definitely more aesthetically pleasing as the rubber grips have gone! The iO comes in a variety of colours; white, black and pink. There is now an interactive colour display and whilst this may not be touch screen *insert sad face* it’s still easy to navigate through using the power and mode buttons.
- The interactive display is great! Picking up the brush first thing in the morning, it’ll greet you with a pleasant good morning sign before allowing the consumer to choose their preferred cleaning mode (Note: the iO comes with 7 cleaning modes – Daily Clean, Sensitive, Gum Care, Intense Clean, Whitening, Super Sensitive, Tongue Cleaner) After brushing, the display will either show a smiley/happy face to say you’ve brushed for the recommended two minutes or a sad face, to show you haven’t cleaned for the recommended time. A new feature is the display of the battery life after the smiley face has disappeared. This is shown as a percentage and the battery sign icon has been removed.
- The Battery life – Always a concern for a lot of people because so many don’t like to take an electric toothbrush when going away for fear of the power running out. Good news! The battery life on the iO is definitely superior to the Genius X, it does all depend on which cleaning mode you use but from personal experience I’ve managed to get two weeks life from only using the sensitive mode. The charging experience has changed too, the toothbrush is able to fully charge in 3 hours and now has a new magnetic charger (fancy!) If you purchase the iO series 9, you also receive a charging travel case that allows you to recharge at your convenience (not available with the 7 and 8 series)
- 3D Teeth Tracking – now this is the big one for me! You can track your brushing technique in real time, you have to firstly download the Oral B Smart Coaching App but the 3D tracking provides you with onscreen guidance and you’re able to see which teeth you’re cleaning well and which teeth need more attention. All your sessions are saved onto the brush (only those that lasted longer than 30 seconds) but the app encourages you to improve your oral hygiene technique. After a session you’re given an overall score, 100% being the best, the score is based on the time you spent brushing, the areas you covered and you can be penalised for over brushing thanks to the smart inbuilt pressure sensor.
- The Pressure Sensor – the added feature of the iO is that you can now see when you’re applying the correct pressure onto your teeth as the ring colour will change to GREEN when brushing. If you’re still over brushing in areas, the ring handle will change to RED and if you’re not applying enough pressure it’ll change to either WHITE or your personalised colour.
There are still some features that have remained the same from the Genius X model;
- There is still an inbuilt 4×30 second timer
- Position detection with AI
- And lastly the gum guard feature
A couple of additional things to mention about the iO is that it comes with a completely different brush head. These cannot be interchangeable with any of the other Oral B electric toothbrushes. There are only two brush head types at the moment for the iO; Ultimate Clean and Gentle Care. Oral B have already explained that replacement heads will cost more in price than the other brush head types but this is again to ascertain that the iO is a luxury item.
The iO is definitely a premium electric toothbrush with an expensive price tag. It’s primarily geared to those who are tech savvy and are invested in improving their oral hygiene. The retail price is £500 and is exclusive to Boots* and Amazon* only. You’ll currently find it on promotion, retailing at £250 but this will be for a limited time.
My overall impression of the iO is that it’s a great electric toothbrush! In combination with the coaching app it is the most resourceful tool at hand for dental professionals to implement for promoting good oral hygiene. The coaching app is such an effective tool, I’ve found myself brushing for much longer than the recommended two minutes as I’m determined to maintain a 100% score rate *oopps, ever the perfectionist*
*Note as a dental professional I was gifted the item prior to launch (thanks Pam from Oral B). This post is considered an ad-gifted.
All photos were taken by myself
Sophina DHT 