Ergonomics
For something that you use twice a day, how a toothbrush feels in hand is important, and the 9900 has a sleek profile that delivers a tactile user experience, which is largely thanks to its matte rubber handle being devoid of controls – apart from a single power button.
Philips have achieved this because of the brush’s heavy reliance on the accompanying sonicare app to do the job of choosing modes and intensities of brushing that’s usually dictated by multiple buttons on the handle.
It’s shorter than its predecessor, the DiamondClean, (by 18mm, to be precise) but it feels nicely balanced. So, even when you’re mid-clean and the handle is getting wet, you still have plenty of purchase on the brush, and it never feels like it’s going to fly across the bathroom.
Its ergonomics and weight also make it easy to maintain a light touch on the brush itself, which is the recommended technique to ensure that you’re not brushing too hard and doing damage to both your teeth and gums.
In app
As I have suggested, one of the biggest attributes of the 9900 is the Sense IQ app, which can simply be downloaded to any smart phone. We had no problem downloading and pairing so that we could get on with the customisation of the brush.
It has a straightforward and clean interface, and the customisation begins with choosing one of the five modes that any existing sonicare users will be familiar with (clean, white +, gum health, deep clean and sensitive). Within those modes there are three intensity settings that can be adjusted, too.
This is why there needs to be some time investment in your early experience with the 9900, and it may take a couple of brushing sessions in order to personalise the behaviour of the brush so that it corresponds with your dental goals and feels comfortable.
The location of the brush corresponded well to where the brush was placed on the in- mouth graphic on the app. In fact, it performed better in this area than some of the other premium brushes we have tested in the past You also can choose where you start from in your mouth and the app will adapt to suit your preference, a feature we’ve not seen before, as other apps usually require you to start from the bottom right of your mouth.
The app will also trace whether you’re brushing the outer or inner surface of your pegs with enough accuracy. We have seen some online grumbles that the app only covers these surfaces and neglects the biting surface on top, but we assumed that between the outer and inner you would cover the chewing surface, so it didn’t seem to be a problem.
You can also choose whether to turn “adaptive sensitivity” on or off, which helps to protect gums from you brushing too hard by briefly pausing the motor and powering down to a lower intensity. We found this was an effective way to get us out of the bad habit of holding the brush too tightly and whenever the intensity was lowered it reminded us to hold with just our fingertips, which helps eliminate the impulse to brush too aggressively.
Another gum protection measure that can be toggled on and off in the app is “scrubbing feedback” which is geared more towards users who are coming to an electric toothbrush from a manual for the first time and are used to the scrubbing motion, which can be harmful for teeth and gums. The scrubbing feedback will alert you away from this motion to the short back and forth motion that is customary with electric brushing.
In use
Anecdotally, I have found that users of sonicare brushes often report that they find the clean feels kinder on teeth and more comfortable, compared to using a brush with an oscillating head. This is certainly the case with the 9900, which delivers a very pleasant sensation as it traces over your teeth, while still delivering what feels like an efficient and thorough clean.
Another thing that a lot of people like about sonicare brushes is the fact that the brush head is very similar to that of a manual because it doesn’t rely on the oscillating action that requires a more circular brush head. So, if you are coming to electric brushing for the first time, the jump from a manual won’t feel quite so alien.
One of the things that has frustrated us in the past with the sonicare range has been the multiple brush heads for different dental objectives, like whitening or gum care.
The all-in-one head on the 9900 contains a mix of angled and long bristles, so that stain removal, deep cleaning and gum care are all covered without the need for any faffing around. The brush head itself flexed nicely in the mouth and the angled bristles felt comfortable, while also feeling like they were doing the job they were intended to do.
Finally, if you’re always the first one up in your house and you’re worried that the sound of the sonicare motor might wake the slumbering, then we can report the 9900 operates quietly. Although, it does still have the distinctive sonicare high-pitched hum.
