If you want to try one of these mouthpiece-style brushes, we’ve used a few.
The Willo was my favorite, but it’s big—it looks a little like something you might find in a dental office. It works by pushing water and its tooth rinse through the mouthpiece as it pulsates, causing the bristles to scrub your teeth in about a minute on each side. Willo is marketed for kids, but with its range of mouthpiece sizes, adults should be able to use it too. My mouth felt cleaner after using the Willo than the two Autobrush models I tried, but neither brand delivered exactly the same feeling as a good scrub, and of course none of these devices can scrub your tongue. (When that device is invented, I’ll be the first in line.)
WIRED writer Brenda Stolyar has been using the SymplBrush, which looks like a mix of the Willo and AutoBrush, and she likes it. “I can tell it hits each tooth and each side of it that might be missed with a standard toothbrush,” she says. “It’s a nice, all-around, clean-type feeling.” But she notes that it didn’t always get the buildup around her gums, so she’d have to go in with a brush anyway. But as someone who generally brushes too hard, she felt this offered a clean that was much gentler to her gums.
Stolyar didn’t like the toothpaste it came with, but she said using her regular toothpaste worked fine, though she had to spend a little extra time to keep the brush clean. However, all these types of brushes are pretty easy to clean, which is a nice added feature for those with limited dexterity.
