If You're Ready To Get Serious About Your Oral Health, This Smart Toothbrush Is A Must-Have

The Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart 9500 is a toothbrush from the future, people.

Whether you’re a long-term electric toothbrush user seeking an upgrade or transitioning from a manual brush, sifting through the all the options on the market can be pretttttty overwhelming.

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Sonic vs. rotating? Fancy features vs. simpler model? The possibilities are endless! Lucky for you, BuzzFeed Reviews tested a slew of top electric toothbrushes to figure out the best choice in each price point.

And if you've committed to dropping a wad of cash on one of the best of the best electric toothbrushes, you’d better make sure it pulls out all the stops in the fancy features department and looks sleek as hell. Enter: the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart 9500, the latest in the high-end DiamondClean line.

Sonicare

The DiamondClean Smart 9500, as you might imagine for a brush with a $200+ price tag, delivers on all the essential features you’d expect: standard two-minute timer and quadpacer (a buzzing prompt every 30 seconds to signal it's time to move to another quadrant of your mouth), a sensor to tell you to chill out when you’re brushing too hard, and compatibility with a range of brush heads in its line. The product comes with four heads — including a tongue-scraping brush — and when one starts to wear, an icon on the handle lights up, signaling it’s time to replace it.

And like all Sonicare models, the brush operates using a vibrating motion, which sends sonic waves on a mission to break through moisture and help sticky plaque matrices fall away from your teeth.

The investment-worthy brush continues to roll out the red carpet for your mouth, offering five cleaning modes with names like Clean, White+, Deep Clean+, Gum Health, TongueCare, and three intensity levels for each, so you can choose the brushing style you’re most comfortable with.

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Oh, and there’s a freakin’ microchip in each brush head that tells the toothbrush which one you’re using (e.g., when you pop on a gum-care brush head, the DiamondClean Smart 9500 will select the optimal mode and intensity for it). Welcome to the future, folks!

We’d be remiss not to acknowledge that the “whitening” capability of any electric toothbrush, as Dr. Lillian Mittl, a practicing dentist in New York City, told us, “is a misnomer — basically you’re just getting off all the plaque, which makes your teeth look dingy.” But if you’re looking for optimal plaque removal, as she explains, the sonic waves from a sonic toothbrush “are a clear advantage” over brushes that merely rotate.

This sleek and shiny brush (available in five chic, subdued hues) comes not only with a standard charging dock, but also a chargeable travel case and charging cup — after a 24-hour charge, it should last up to two weeks of twice-daily use.

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Unlike older Sonicare models, this one features two buttons — one for power and one to switch between modes — so you’re no longer forced to go through *all* the cleaning modes while the brush is still in your mouth (truly, first-world problems) to avoid splattering toothpaste all over your bathroom while it continues to vibrate.

Grippability, however, isn’t its strong suit. The handle is quite smooth, so those with motor issues might want to take note. When in use, the brush is relatively quiet, rivaling — though not quite as quiet as — the Quip, our pick for the best affordable electric toothbrush.

And then there’s the clincher: The brush connects via Bluetooth to the Sonicare app (boasting an impressive 4.8-star average with more than 13,000 reviews), which allows users to set goals, track progress, address missed spots while brushing, and more.

Sonicare, Emmy Favilla / BuzzFeed

If you’re a diehard Oral-B stan, the Bluetooth-powered Oral-B Genius Pro 8000 packs a similar punch at a similar price; unlike Oral-B models, however, Sonicare’s (not inexpensive) brush heads come with a snap-on plastic cover, poop particles meandering through your bathroom be damned.

No, you don’t really need Bluetooth compatibility, a travel case, and a glass that will charge your toothbrush, or five cleaning modes. But marketing gimmick or not, if you've committed to getting super serious about your oral health and spending three figures for an electric toothbrush, you should be benefitting from a gaggle of bells and whistles. And if you want to throw down the cash to have a little more fun with your toothbrush than you would with a mid-priced pick (like the Sonicare 2 Series model), then the DiamondClean Smart 9500 is our clear favorite.

Get it from Amazon for $226.99+.

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Allison Krausman / BuzzFeed