Oral B Vitality D12513 Precision Clean Electric Toothbrush

Suggested Retail Price: $19.99

Rating: 8/10

Advantages

• Very Cheap
• Indicator bristles show when brush head needs replacement
• Two-minute timer signals recommended brushing time
• Limited 2 year warranty 

Disadvantages

• Few extra features
• Battery needs to be charged more often than some models
• Failure rate slightly higher than other models

Included Accessories

• Base station charger
• Owner's manual

Review

The Oral B Vitality D12513 is a no frills electric toothbrush, but with an incredibly low suggested retail price of $19.99, its a very popular model and comes highly recommended.  Additionally, a savvy shopper should be able to find this model at an even lower price.

Some people might be scared off by the low price, thinking that such a cheap electric toothbrush must not work well.  Though actually, it operates much like any other model.  The Vitality D12513 uses what Oral B calls Advanced Cleaning Technology and uses their Advanced Bristle System.  This means that the included brush head, called the FlexiSoft brush head, is able to surround each tooth with its round shape and is good at reaching hard to reach places.  In fact, despite the low price, this electric toothbrush packs some power.  The brush head moves at a dizzying 7,600 times per minutes.

Even though it's not much more expensive a manual toothbrush, this electric toothbrush is much more beneficial that one.  It's great at making healthier gums, and reduces rates of gingivitis by 60%.  If you are buying an electric toothbrush because you want whiter teeth, the Vitality D12513 can help with that too.  It will remove stains at a rate much better than a traditional manual toothbrush.

The biggest downside with this model is that there are very few extras.  One of its few features is that it comes with a two-minute timer so you know when you've brushed for the dentist recommended period of time, which is a feature most models include to begin with.  Its other extra feature is that the indicator bristles will show when you should replace the brush head.  Since you are supposed to the brush head every 3 months anyways, this feature is okay but of limited value.  However, if you are looking for more features, you can always buy some additional brush heads, such as the Oral B Dual Clean or Pro White.

Another limitation of this Oral B electric toothbrush is that it needs more charging than a lot of other models.  Left uncharged, it will be useable another 5 days.  While this is not so bad, it won't work on long vacations.  Also, this model probably won't last quite as long as an expensive electric toothbrush.  It should still last at least a couple of years, which isn't bad, but if you're planning on not buying another electric toothbrush in the next several years you might opt for a more expensive one.  Overall though, this is a great value if you don't care about having the fanciest model available.