If there’s something worth investing in 2023, it’s your teeth. With current NHS dentist places harder to secure than entry to Berghain, the price of dental check-ups and follow-up procedures quickly becomes an eye-watering proposition. Somewhat fortuitously then, Oral B has decided to save you the effort by creating the Rolls-Royce of dental care: the Oral-B iO10. Claiming to revolutionise the way you brush – and vastly improve your gum and dental health in the process – this flash-looking behemoth of an electric toothbrush is marketed as the ultimate answer for polishing your pearly whites.
The problem? It costs £800. To be fair, electric toothbrushes are almost perennially discounted, much like DFS’s millennia-spanning sale, so you’re never going to actually pay that amount. And while a few retailers have already reduced this electric toothbrush to a sub-PS5 price point currently, the question is, is this tech-filled mouth maintainer really worth the price of a holiday?
View more
Top-tier tooth cleaning
Somewhat unbelievably, this toothbrush lives up to its lofty claims. Having only ever owned sub-£100 electric toothbrushes, I came away shocked at the thoroughness of my first clean with the iO10. While companies often promise a “dentist-quality clean” this is the first time I’ve used a brush that’s come close, with my teeth feeling remarkably smooth and healthy after every brush. While it’s hard to justify anyone spending £800 on a toothbrush during a cost-of-living crisis – even though these things are regularly discounted around Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day and the like – after a month with this brushy behemoth, I’d be lying if I said that my gums and teeth didn’t feel healthier than ever.
Packaged in a striking matte black box, complete with a carry case, speckled black finish and ribboned gift bag, your first impression of the iO10 is closer to unboxing the latest iPhone than something you’d buy in Boots. Coming with a magnetic charger and a handy Power2GO charging travel case, it features everything you’d reasonably expect from an absurdly expensive electric toothbrush. Yet it’s the vast array of tech packed into the brush itself that really changes the gummy game.
Pros: One of the most comprehensive brushes available | Smart cleaning features
Cons: Very expensive
- Battery life: Three weeks
- Smart features: Yes
- Spare heads included: Yes
- Pressure sensor: Yes
- Travel case: Yes
Electric toothbrushes are all the rage right now, and it’s about time we saw tech making hygiene and self-care exciting. Oral-B’s iO9 is an exceptionally clever device capable of educating you through the process of better cleaning your teeth. They intelligently track where you’re brushing in the mouth, warning you via an app if you’ve not hit a particular tooth all the way. It has an LED display to notify you which of the eight brushing styles you’re using, and will light up red if you’re pressing into your teeth too hard.
If that all sounds a bit like overkill for a vibrating stick that you’ll wedge in your mouth for four minutes a day, then rest assured it’s the simpler things that really impress about the iO9. There’s a timer so you’re not guessing how long you’ve brushed based on pauses in vibration and info on remaining battery life rather than waiting blindly for sub-par performance. £499.99 £225. At amazon.co.uk & boots.com
Harnessing the power of AI, the iO10 uses 3D-tracking to ensure you’re properly cleaning every inch of your pearly whites. Syncing up to Oral B’s mobile app, your phone uncannily mirrors a diagram of your teeth, lighting up all the areas that you’ve properly brushed in real-time. From your canines to your inner molars, it guides you patiently through the cavernous depths you probably ignore. As someone who always assumed they brushed thoroughly, I was shocked that on my first clean, I only managed to clean 67 per cent of my teeth with plenty of room for incisor improvement.
With each brush your two minutes of teeth time gets graded, encouraging you to do better on your next attempt. Like the recent gamification of running, cycling and pretty much everything else humans do, it’s a smart way of motivating you to take care of your teeth, with each performance also allowing you to record any gum bleed or other issues.
Complete oral care
It’s oddly attentive too, offering solutions to the aforementioned gum bleed by regularly encouraging flossing and politely asking if you’re using mouthwash. I’ve had partners that are less caring. Still, the tech here isn’t all so futuristic, with the iO10 also offering some of the standard electric toothbrush fare.
From an interactive colour display that monitors your cleaning time and grades your brush performance – measured with a dystopian smiling or frowning face that would make Black Mirror proud – to a handy symbol that notifies you when you need to change your brush head, the io10 feels like an active participant in your dental routine.
Combine this handy direction with a satisfying series of quad micro-vibrations, which cleverly vibrate every 30 seconds to tell you how you’re doing, as well as colour strips that flash to indicate whether you’re applying too much pressure, and a month with this bougie brush’s given me the smoothest, nicest feeling teeth and gums of my 31 years on this Earth. My only issue is that I am painfully wary of damaging this very valuable new necessity. Mercifully, however, this princely purchase also nets you a two-year warranty, making any issues less of a kick in the proverbial teeth.
Oral-B iO10 verdict
While it’s tricky to justify anyone spending the cost of a weekend away on a toothbrush, after using the iO10, I don’t think I can ever go back. Thanks to the dentist quality clean, 3D tracking and genuinely useful app integration, it’s a product that has genuinely made me better at oral hygiene. After a noticeable reduction in plaque, I find myself constantly curling my tongue around my teeth – looking a bit like a confused dog after they’ve accidentally whacked their face. If you can catch a deal on the iO10 come the annual sales season, the money it could save you on future dental procedures makes it a worthy investment.
Oral-B IO10 is available from £400. At amazon.co.uk, boots.com & oralb.co.uk
For more fashion, grooming and technology releases delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our GQ Recommends newsletter.
