Xiaomi's Oscillation Electric Toothbrush Pro and Water Flosser 2 are fine upgrades to your dental health kit. Both are easy enough to use that we wouldn't feel bad giving them to a technophobe. They both have batteries that will last you at least a couple of months, and they both do an admirable job of keeping your chompers clean.
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You might not usually look forward to seeing them, but you’ll bolt to the nearest dentist when the cavities come calling. A better idea is not to let it get to that point. This can usually be achieved with little effort and money. But, like everything else in life, your results will probably improve if you throw a little more money and tech at the problem.
Nearly every dentist we Googled recommends cleaning your teeth twice daily. With strong messaging like that, it’s no wonder Xiaomi make dental hygiene products, along with the other household items in its stable. We enjoy a pain-free mouth as much as the next person, so when it offered to send us the Oscillation Electric Toothbrush Pro and Water Flosser 2, how could we say no? Admit it, you also want to know what a ‘pro’ toothbrush gets you.
Brush like the pros
This one comes with two heads in the box: one labelled ‘Soft’ and one labelled ‘Clean’. After using each for a week, we couldn’t really see a difference in how they cleaned our teeth, but they do feel different in the mouth. The soft one was our favourite. Xiaomi also uses colour-fading filaments that are meant to remind you to change the head every three months. However, at the time of writing, we couldn’t find any replacements available for purchase online locally.
This Xiaomi electric toothbrush pro has four brushing modes in its arsenal: gentle, standard, deep oscillation, and smart oscillation. Coming from a manual toothbrush, we started out with the gentle mode before trying the rest. We ended up sticking with the smart oscillation mode, which changes the way the brushhead oscillates depending on the surface of your teeth you’re brushing.
What app?
An important thing to note is that this is not a smart toothbrush. There’s no companion app to pair with. This should make this toothbrush more accessible to the tech-adverse folks. We were actually a little surprised by how easy it was to operate right from the start, and how easy it is to live with.
Firstly, the battery is supposed to last up to 180 days (if you brush twice a day for two minutes each), so you don’t have to keep charging it. After three weeks, we haven’t had to yet. The lift-to-wake feature makes twice-daily use a breeze. Pick it up, apply some paste, and click the button to start brushing. It remembers the last mode you used, or you can press the button again to cycle through them.
Whichever mode you select, it will pause briefly every 30 seconds, indicating you should move to a different quadrant of your mouth. It will stop after two minutes, giving you a happy face (if you’ve earned it) and a report on your coverage. You can also keep going if you really want to, or if you get a prompt to say you didn’t brush enough in certain areas.
Between the 6-axis sensor and algorithm model, the toothbrush will analyse your brushing habits and also provide some info on how at-risk your teeth are for developing plaque. We don’t usually skip brush sessions, but we switched back to our manual brush for a few days, just to see how this toothbrush responded. Admonishment from your toothbrush hits different. It will also tell you if you’re pushing too hard. When it comes to your dental health, constructive feedback should be welcomed… even if it’s from an inanimate object.
What is a pain-free mouth worth to you?
After using the Xiaomi oscillation electric toothbrush pro, we tried Xiaomi’s Water Flosser 2. We’ll say right out the gate, if you weren’t already a dedicated flosser, this isn’t going to change that. You’ll need to commit, and nothing helps you do that like a R30,000 dental bill because you missed a few days months years. That said, this water flosser certainly made the process feel novel again.
Like the toothbrush, there isn’t much to it. You get two types of tips in the box: the ‘orthodontic’ tip has small, soft bristles so you can brush and rinse in one go (this isn’t meant to replace brushing with a toothbrush), while the ‘standard’ tip is great for removing stubborn food, like those bits of popcorn kernel that insist on staying where they are. The battery is rated to last up to 90 days, although that’s only using the gentle mode once a day for one minute.
Fill the 200mL water tank, put the thing together, and press the button to have high-pressure water jets blasted into your mouth. The feeling might take some getting used to, and we’ve heard reports of some people experiencing bleeding from the gums after the first few times. Thankfully, we weren’t among them. Still, we opted to start with the gentle mode before trying standard and powerful.
A couple of tips for beginners we learned the hard way: you’ll want to make sure the tip is in your mouth, and you close your lips around it a little, or you’ll end up spraying everything in your vicinity as the high-pressure water splashes off your teeth. You’ll also want to make sure you aim it correctly — high-pressure water down your throat isn’t a great feeling. After some practice, we got the hang of it and our teeth have never been cleaner.
Xiaomi Oscillation Electric Toothbrush Pro + Water Flosser 2 verdict
If you’re looking to upgrade your dental hygiene but don’t want to spend huge amounts of money, Xiaomi’s products are worthy of consideration. Both the Oscillation Electric Toothbrush Pro and Water Flosser 2 are a breeze to use after a brief learning period, and they both have batteries that will last at least a couple of months before they’ll need a charge.
The toothbrush provides some dental health coaching, but if you’re looking for more in-depth tracking and stats, you’ll need to look at something else. Either way, they made a noticeable difference to our oral hygiene. Whether that will be the case for you depends on way too many things to list here. But maybe the dentists who insist you should brush and floss daily are on to something.
If you’re after your next dental upgrade, the Oscillation Electric Toothbrush Pro has a recommended retail price of R1,000. Makro has it listed for R1,200, although it was marked down to R1,090 at the time of writing. The Water Flosser 2 is meant to cost R650, but we could only find it listed on Takealot for just under R900.
If you want an easy way to earn some brownie points, Mother’s Day is coming soon. Nothing says ‘I love and appreciate you Mom’ like a dental hygiene kit. Father’s Day isn’t too far away either. Just sayin’.
