I tried the new Oral B iO10 electric toothbrush, and it’s taken my teeth from dull to diamond-clean

The Oral B iO10 electric toothbrush is the newest in the brand’s long line of high-spec oscillating devices, and it’s not here to play about. Before it came the iO5, 6 and 7, all the way up to the more recent iO8 and iO9 models, with new technical improvements in each shiny iteration. They’re not the cheapest offerings from Oral-B and, indeed, you can buy one of the Pro Series electric brushes for sub-£30. But there are some unique features that set the top-of-the-industry iO series apart from your everyday toothbrush, and a £400 discount in the January sales is a very good place to start. 

The most notable improvements between the iO9 and iO10 models? iO Sense™. What is iO Sense™, you ask? iO Sense™ provides users with brushing guidance in real time as you work around the six zones of your mouth. While the previous devices offered users Oral-B’s Smart Pressure Sensor to protect gums from excess and/or inadequate brushing pressure (which the iO10 has, too), iO Sense™ uses the brand’s app to grade your brushing performance using a three colour system. For instance, all six zones will show as dark blue as you begin your morning and evening cleans, fading through white blue and eventually white as you reach a full, adequate clean in each zone. Plus, even if you’re unlikely to bring your phone with you for all 730 brushes throughout the year (we don’t blame you) the Oral-B iO team have anticipated this, including in the iO10 model this colour grading system upon the surface of the toothbrush’s charger. 

Now, with these new features promising a ‘professional clean feeling’ we, naturally, had to put the product to the test. Let’s see how we got on…

Key features

• iO Sense™ guided brushing with a timer, AI 3D teeth tracking and a graded performance indicator
• Smart Pressure Sensor gum protection
• Oscillating micro-vibrations on a ‘dentist-inspired’ round brush head, using iO magnetic technology to power the clean
• An interactive colour display to monitor battery life, brush mode, cleaning time and performance, plus when you’ll need to change your brush head
• Seven brushing modes from daily clean to gum care
• 30-day risk-free trial
• 2-year warranty
• Magnetic charger and Power2Go charging travel case 

The reviewer

Lucy Smith, Commerce Writer at British GLAMOUR. 

The assignment

As someone who, previously, had only dabbled with a manual brush, using a new iO brush was going to be a big step up. If I’m coming completely clean, I’ve been subject to perhaps a few too many dentist’s visits after what can only be described as a sugar-filled childhood (that’s what said dentist puts it down to, anyway…). As such, my oral health was in need of a bit of a boost prior to the Oral-B iO series brush and, in terms of my tooth brushing goals, I was hoping to see improved whitening, improved plaque removal (no-one likes a rough feeling on the surface of your teeth) and reminders to floss and replace my brush more often. A big task!

The verdict

I’ve had my Oral-B iO series 10 toothbrush now since September last year and, four months on, I would be lying if I said that using my manual (when I lazily ignore the iO10’s charging alerts) is anything less than a chore. With the iO10, the brushing experience is thorough, provides the ultimate clean morning and night, and my teeth? They’ve never been in better nick.