Inexpensive Brush Heads for Sonicare

If you're an owner of a Sonicare toothbrush, you know what an amazing clean it gives your teeth. Probably there's a dentist out there somewhere that doesn't like Sonicare, but I've never met one. Dental hygienists too. They all seem to be fans.

(If you don't use Sonicare yet ... we can't recommend it highly enough. It's such a low-cost option for addressing such an important part of your health. Just get through the first few brushes when it tickles the heck out of your gums; pretty soon that will feel normal. Find the base model here for $20 at the time of this writing -- includes your first brush head. That page also has a comparison chart with other Sonicare models.)

​But as a Sonicare owner, you know that there's just one thing painful about them: the cost of replacing brush heads. They're like $8 each (at the time of this writing), which isn't horrific given that the overall toothbrush takes care of your teeth so much better than your standard brush. But if you want to be responsible and replace your brush head every 3 months (and maybe after you've been sick as well), that might feel like it's adding up.

Well here's some good news Sonicare fan: there are plenty of compatible brush heads that can be had for $2 and less a piece. Indeed.

Of course we haven't been maniacs brushing our teeth with every brand available, but we did give this one a try by Demirdental because of its 4.5 star rating after hundreds of reviews on Amazon. Our experience?

We wouldn't give it 5 stars because of some subtle things. For one, it didn't seem to fit as snugly against the body of the Sonicare as a Sonicare brush head; so far, this just seems cosmetic, and as we try out more in the future we'll update this if we find that it was a fluke.

Second, when initially moving over from the Sonicare head, there was something about the shape of the new brush head we didn't like quite as well. Something about it being a touch more difficult to position properly for a good brush.

But like many new things, with a little time it seems like it's becoming more natural and it definitely seems to be providing a great brush. We might grade it 4 stars on these points alone, but we'd be irked that we couldn't give it 4.5 stars, which is just where the Amazon rating is.

Long story short, if you don't want to cough up the full price for the brand name brush head, you won't go wrong with these, and they don't cost any more than a standard toothbrush. After a bout with a cold, I'd hate to throw out a Philips brush head if it were still pretty new; with these, not such a big deal. (Ok ... environmental concerns aside. But that gets us into the topic of things like bamboo toothbrushes, and sadly there are so far no bamboo Sonicare replacement heads that we're aware of.)

So with base models at $20 for Sonicare and replacement heads for $2 each ... there's really no reason (unless ... environment) not to brush this way. And we think you'll love the difference it makes on your teeth and at the dentist.

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