Why You Should Avoid Knockoff Oral-B and Philips Sonicare Brush Heads

In several years of using an electric toothbrush, I’ve always gone with brand-name brush heads because, well, why change what is working just fine and is fairly inexpensive? But, as we are wont to do at Wirecutter, we also wondered: Is there a point to paying more for the brand-name thing?

In short: Yes. After six months of testing generic and brand-name electric toothbrush heads in a literal head-to-head comparison, we found we liked using those from Oral-B and Philips Sonicare best. Although the generic brush heads will get the job done, the bristles in the ones we tested felt stiffer (and a bit prickly, even) compared with the brand-name ones. This sounds like a minor issue, but according to Marcelo Araujo, vice president of the Science Institute at the American Dental Association, brush feel actually matters a lot when it comes to maintaining oral health.

The ADA recommends using a brush with soft bristles, as firmer brushes are harsher on gums and can lead to wear and tear and even gum recession.“Soft is a layman term we use to say that [the toothbrush is] safe,” explained Araujo. The ADA tests brushes for stiffness as part of its seal certification. Though brushes from Oral B and Sonicare and the associated heads have earned the seal, there’s no third-party guarantee that the generics will be good for your oral health, cautioned Araujo.

Moreover, we found that choosing a brand-name replacement head doesn’t cost much more than going with a generic. For our pick, an Oral-B brush, the monthly cost difference is less than the price of a small coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts, and that price gap is even smaller if you buy the brand-name brush heads in bulk.

If, like me, you prefer more-supple bristles, consider that the additional $1.50 or so a month can make a twice-daily activity more pleasant.

How we tested and what we found

To reach this conclusion, I started by combing through the plentiful generic brush-head offerings at retailers like Amazon and Walmart to find top-rated best sellers. We identified two options with great reviews (and good Fakespot ratings): one compatible with our top pick electric toothbrush, from Oral-B, and one compatible with our favorite Sonicare model. Then, I rotated through the brush heads, using each as my toothbrush for about six weeks, twice a day.

In both cases, the brand-name brushes’ bristles felt slightly more supple to me than the generics’, possibly because they are longer, and, according to Araujo, might be shaped differently. Bristles with a round tip feel smoother against sensitive gums; if left with a square tip, they’ll feel a bit prickly, as was the case with the generics—or “gray market” heads, as Araujo calls them. In the case of the Oral-B brush heads, the difference was more stark: the generic brush-heads’ bristles were shorter and had less give, resulting in the harsher feel against gums that the ADA cautions against.

I then had three of my coworkers each brush once with all four brush heads, without disclosing which was the brand-name versus the generic. One coworker found the bristles on the generic replacement heads for both Oral-B and Sonicare brush handles more comfortable than the brand-name versions, though she also said that they vibrated more, making the brushing experience “a little more raucous.” The other two preferred the brand-name heads.

Michael Zhao, deputy editor at Wirecutter, tried using another brand of generic heads on a five-year-old Oral-B 3000. Although he didn’t notice much of a difference at first, “I recently switched back to the real ones after eight months of using the fake ones and it just feels so much better,” he said. Leigh Krietsch Boerner, a former senior staff writer at Wirecutter, tried yet another brand of Oral-B generics, with similar results. “They were a little ouchy hard.”

Aside from the feel, the generic brush heads I tested are in many ways just as good as the brand-name ones. They all fit onto the brushes just fine. They come with a variety of colorful rings around their bases, so that you can distinguish between brush heads if more than one person in your household uses the same type of brush handle. And while, in my experience, the plastic bristles on the Sonicare dupe had a bit of a bitter taste at first, so did those on the official Oral-B brush head (a problem I had not previously encountered, which was solvable by rinsing the brush heads with toothpaste and water). At the end of the six-week testing periods, all of the brush heads—generic and brand-name—showed similar degrees of wear and tear.

Ultimately, we feel best going with brushes that both feel a bit nicer and come with the assurance from the ADA that they’re safe to use. If you want to save money, buying brand-name brush heads in bulk is a better route than going with the gray-market options.