The Oral B Triumph 5000 is an electric toothbrush with a difference, as it contains a SmartGuide to encourage you to brush for longer, You charge up your brush, choose your favourite settings (Clean/Polish etc) and the brush wirelessly syncs with the SmartGuide, giving you a time goal to brush to. If you meet this goal you'll receive a digital smiley face, which should give you a warm inner glow as well as pearly gnashers.
But how well would this work in reality, and do we need gimmicks like this with our brushes?
It uses 3D rotate pulsating technology to reach every corner of the mouth, with the bristles performing around 8800 rotations and 40,000 pulsations a minute. The pressure in the mouth takes some getting used to, as you have to allow the brush to float over the teeth rather than try and brush them manually.
The brush is fairly heavy, with a weighted base, and contoured to make it easy to grip, Thee is a battery meter which indicates the level of power remaining, and two buttons on it for changing modes.
The toothbrush has no digital display, so any changes in mode you make are displayed on the SmartGuide. It works as a clock till you switch the brush on, and includes a timer to tell you how long you've been brushing for. You can set it for 2-3 minutes, and arrange for it to count up or down.
It's odd to be working towards a set time for brushing, but seeing as most people never brush for the required time it's a good way to train yourself into good habits.
I found counting up made the brush feel a little too much like hard work, whilst the countdown timer made you feel like you were close to achieving your goal. The timer is displayed in numbers and with a little segmented circle, which is supposed to relate to the quadrants of the mouth. At equal intervals different parts darken, telling you to starts brushing in another section- handy if you forget to brush all around. When you reach your goal a smiley face appears, which should be enough incentive for you to keep going and not cut your session short.
The toothbrush comes with three brushes, two for everyday use called FlossAction and one called proBright for a deeper clean to help remove those pesky wine stains. The brushes feature blue indicator bristles, which not only complement the white/blue colours scheme of the Oral-B brush, but also indicate when they need replacing by fading halfway down the brush in around 3 months.
There are five brushing modes available, to allow you to vary your daily routine. You can pick from Daily Clean, Sensitive, Massage, Polish and Deep Clean.
After using this for 21 days I found my breath was a lot fresher and my teeth looked like they had lightened a shade or two. I was initially unsure about using this daily, but once my gums stopped bleeding (natural if you haven't been brushing correctly) I really started to love the deep cleansing sensation, and the variety of settings meant I never got bored.
It may be gimmicky- but it works!
Get it for £78.29 (down from £156.59) at Boots.