Review (5/5): Not your father's electric tooth brush or water irrigation machine!
Fascinating product; not your father's electric toothbrush, not your father's irrigation water pick.
This is very different electric toothbrush that clearly is different than brushing your teeth, it seems like a much much faster motion and in fact it hums and makes a rather peculiar numbing like sound and feels that way as it is being used.
The Sonicare Floss, is not a continuous irrigation (which probably did not do a lot of good, at least the older models from decades ago), however a more powerful pulse you give yourself between each tooth. Seems clearly more effective than the old style irrigation. I would be reluctant to stop flossing as I cannot be sure how effective this new device might be.
I believe the previous generation (20+ years ago) of electric toothbrushes and water irrigation devices did not do much better if at all than regular and conscientious brushing and flossing; These new products seem very different.
I do not know if dentists use these products on their own teeth or not; I also do not know if there has been a randomized trial between regular toothbrushes and ordinary dental floss vs those who use the Sonicare Essence and Floss machines. At 3 and 6 month, an assessment could be done by a dental hygienist which group had better outcomes. The study could be blinded in the sense that the hygienist would not be told which individual used older vs newer technology. It would have to be a randomized trial, in the sense that a control group that is not on the trial, might not be as fastidious as a control group that is told that they are being compared to the "new technology" group.
I do like this product very much, and I probably will not tell my dental hygienist I am using it and see if her assessment of my teeth/gums are improved compared to previous evaluations. Perhaps I will update the review at that time.