| Customer Reviews: Average Rating:  Rating : - Vitality > SmartSeries 5000 * excellent no-frills electric toothbrush *
I had previously purchased the Oral-B SmartSeries 5000 and was stunned by its inadequacies. See 2 star review for more information. I shipped it back to the company for a full refund and purchased this inexpensive Vitality toothbrush to retain the benefits of this approach, which seemed possible given the same brushheads are used. It really does live up to the reviews and is quite good. The speed is not so fast that it is unusable, and it works well for sensitive teeth, whereas with the SmartSeries 5000 could only be used on its slowest speed. The Vitality single-speed is more towards a sensitive setting on the more expensive brush, yet for me it is perfect. Two speeds would be nice, though the default is just about right already.
What amazes me about these products is that they do not come with mounting kits or cord management assistance, and thus it must be assumed everyone has a huge sink to store such items on. I do not. In addition, there is a real risk of having this charging base fall into a sink of water, at which point electrocution is possible. That would seem incentive enough to get better control over how to use these devices. I rigged up my own system (see photos above, upper-left*) not only to hide the toothbrush from sight, also because of the potential for the charging base to fall into the sink. It just seems like there is no common sense about how people use these devices and what those (millions?) who get them have to deal with as a result of the gap between what is offered and how it is required to be used in daily functioning. Instead of a million people having to do a DIY project to get the cords and brushheads and charging base configured safely and effectively, why is Oral-B not doing this and shipping the things as part of the package?
That said, for a compromise toothbrush it is excellent. I wanted the higher quality product with brushhead holder, and potentially better functioning. This did not exist. And thus the Vitality is a good intermediate investment, until better technology arrives in these products, specially new batteries - not the existing NiCads which need charging every 5 days or so.
[Note to Amazon: when uploading photos it says that the first photo will be the last in the sequence, so I uploaded in reverse order, and then when they are presented they are switched back. This confusion is not helpful and now the image sequence is in backwards order as a result, without the possibility of editing and fixing it. If someone at Amazon reads this review please reverse the image order. Thanks.] + See Full Customer Review |  |