If you’re buying an electric toothbrush, you’ll need to factor in ongoing costs. Chiefly, this means buying a new toothbrush head every three months.
You’ll be spending another $/£20-50 per year, depending on whether you buy in bulk, on sale or at full price. But, as anyone who’s ever browsed Amazon can tell you, there is a cheaper option.
And that’s to buy compatible heads. They’re designed to work with a branded electric brush handle – but crucially aren’t made by that brand. A full year’s worth of these could cost as little as $/£12.
Advantages and disadvantages of generic brush heads
The advantage of compatible heads is obvious. They’re much cheaper than their branded counterparts. They’re readily available too, with a good selection on Amazon. You’ll be able to spot them by their nonsensical word mash-up brand names, such as Othestory and Trustnice – although this may not fill you with the greatest confidence.
Rightly so, as there are disadvantages to buying. There’s no guarantee of what you’re getting. They’re likely of lesser quality (particularly the bristles) and they may affect the brushing performance of your electric toothbrush or some of its features – especially if you use smart brush tracking features via an app.
Poorly made brush heads could even damage your brush handle, or your teeth.
That’s why we decided to test some and find out if compatible brush heads are worth it.
We chose to buy Oral-B iO compatible heads as the branded versions are expensive – plus, iO electric toothbrushes have additional features such as a brushing timer, pressure sensor and connectivity, which could be affected by a non-branded brush head.
I’m testing compatible heads against Oral-B’s own iO Ultimate Clean heads on the Oral-B iO4, which has basic smart features, although it doesn’t feature brushing tracking. To find out more about Oral-B brushes and get advice on the right one for you, have a look at our round-up of the best Oral-B brushes.
We picked a couple of different types of compatible brush heads that are available in both the US and the UK, but they’re all fairly similar and you’ll get a good sense of their overall quality by reading our impressions below.
Othestory/ Cremodul Oral-B iO-compatible brush heads
In the US, these are sold as Othestory. A pack of 4 costs $12.99 ($3.25 each) from Amazon.
In the UK, they’re sold as Cremodul. A pack of 8 costs £21.99 (£2.75 each) from Amazon.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
First impression: The build of these brush heads is very similar to the branded Oral-B versions – at first glance, at least. But they have a shiny coating that doesn’t match the matt finish of the brush. In our experience, shiny, cheaply produced plastic toothbrush heads tend to pick up scratches after a period of use, which makes you worry about the plastic you’re ingesting.
To differentiate the brush heads, rather than having a subtle symbol on the neck (waves, a flag, a cloud) as the Oral-B ones do, these have a fixed plastic ring in either pink, blue, green or yellow. When attached to an Oral-B brush, it sits right above the light ring and does affect the look of the brush.
Bristles: The bristles are the most obvious point of difference between the compatible and branded brush head. The compatible one has a snowflake-shaped bristle formation that looks very different from Oral-B’s own.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Press against them and it’s immediately clear that the bristles don’t have as much give as the branded Oral-B ones. Softer bristles are generally recommended by dentists as they’re gentler on tooth enamel and gums.
After using one of these brush heads for a while, I did start to have slightly sore gums along the tooth line.
Compatibility: This is where things fall apart for these brush heads. They just don’t work as well with an Oral-B iO. For a start, they make the brush much noisier in use. I also found that they affected the efficacy of the pressure sensor, which at one point was stuck glowing red, even when I’d stopped using the brush. Still, the timer worked perfectly.
Toptheway/ Trustnice Oral-B iO-compatible brush heads
In the US, these are sold as Toptheway. A pack of 4 costs $16.99 ($4.25 each) from Amazon.
In the UK, they’re called Trustnice. A pack of 4 costs £13.99 (£3.50 each) from Amazon.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
First impression: These brush heads also have a shiny coating and it began to show signs of use after only a few brushing sessions. Like the other model, they have a chunky, brightly coloured plastic ring around the neck, which looks ugly.
Bristles: Again, the bristles are slightly firmer than those of the Oral-B brush head and the formation is different. But what’s most noticeable is the rough way that a portion of the bristles are cut – they look like a handful of hay. Nonetheless, I still preferred using these brush heads to the previous type. They also have the benefit of coloured sections which will fade as the brush is used, to remind you to change the brush head.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Compatibility: These fared much better with the brush handle. They still made the brush noisier to use but the pressure sensor worked accurately and the timer was again fine.
Oral-B iO Ultimate Clean heads
US: A pack of 2 costs $21.95 ($10.98 each) from Amazon.
UK: A pack of 2 costs £14.23 (£7.12 each) from Amazon.
These are high quality, as you’d expect. The problem is price. Our advice would be to keep an eye out for sales as the price jumps around a lot, both on Amazon and from other retailers.
Replacement brush heads are not always discounted during big sales days such as Black Friday, when the brushes themselves are cheaper. Instead, the price will drop randomly at other times.
Foundry
Should you buy generic electric brush heads?
Overall, I preferred the Toptheway (US)/ Trustnice (UK) brush heads to those by Othestory (US)/ Cremodul (UK). But neither one was as good as Oral-B’s branded heads.
If money is tight, buying compatible brush heads is a better option than continuing to use expired brush heads or reverting to using a manual brush. But they may make your brush noisier and affect some of its functionality.
Overall, we can’t honestly say that they’re just as good as the branded brush heads, or promise that they’ll protect your teeth and gums over a long time period – but we don’t think they’re harmful and there are times when buying them may be worth it.
Looking for a new electric toothbrush? See our round-ups of the best electric toothbrushes, the best cheap electric toothbrushes and the best Oral-B brushes.