Sonicare Toothbrush feature evaluation :
The Sonicare FlexCare brushing modes and routines.

Higher-end Sonicare products offer more elaborate or varied toothbrush actions than the less expensive, more basic models do. This fact leads to the question, do the benefits of these features justify the cost of these more expensive models? On this page we describe some of these higher-end toothbrush options. Specifically, those specialized operational modes and routines featured by the Sonicare FlexCare toothbrush line.

The FlexCare sonic toothbrush line (both the model RS930 and R910) features two brushing routines and one operational mode that are not offered by any other Sonicare toothbrush models. These are the Massage mode and the Max Care and Go Care brushing routines.

The FlexCare Massage mode.

The Sonicare FlexCare's Massage function is not a brushing mode but is instead intended to create gum tissue stimulation. When this mode is chosen, the FlexCare's brush head takes on a somewhat pulsating action.

We don't have a lot to say about the Massage mode. We'd be very reluctant to suggest to a prospective Sonicare purchaser that we'd opt for a FlexCare model simply because of the availability of the Massage mode. However, possibly your dentist could provide you with reasoning as to why Massage mode might be important in your particular situation. We did search the PubMed.gov database of publication abstracts for a reference to any study that evaluated the benefits of the FlexCare's Massage mode. We were unable to locate any. Additionally, we did not find any reference to any such studies on Sonicare's website.

The FlexCare Max Care routine.

The FlexCare's Max Care setting is a brushing routine that consists of the brush running in its full-power, 31,000-brush-strokes-per-minute mode (the FlexCare's Clean mode) for 30 seconds followed by 15 seconds of Massage mode, for four cycles and a total brushing time of three minutes. Since we've already suggested that we don't see the great benefit associated with the use of the FlexCare's Massage mode, it shouldn't come as any surprise to you to learn that we don't think we'd be all that inclined to use the Max Care routine.

If choosing between a routine involving three minutes of brushing combined with gum stimulation (the Max Care routine) or simply brushing for three minutes with the toothbrush running in Clean mode for the entire time, we would think that the latter would be more beneficial for most people. We'd argue that using a brushing regimen that helps to insure that thorough plaque removal has taken place will provide more of a benefit for the overall oral health of more people than one that draws some attention away from this duty in favor of gum tissue massage.

The FlexCare Go Care routine.

The FlexCare line of brushes also offers a Go Care routine. This setting runs the brush in Clean mode for just one minute. Philips Sonicare suggests that using a FlexCare toothbrush in its Go Care routine will produce more effective cleaning than what the person would accomplish in the same one-minute time frame when brushing with a manual toothbrush. We don't doubt this statement for a moment.

We would, however, suggest that the availability of the Go Care setting on the FlexCare very well might be interpreted by some toothbrush owners as suggesting that a one-minute brushing session on its own is acceptable. We would think that very few people can effectively brush and clean their teeth in sixty seconds. And every dentist is very familiar with the patient who continues to have dental problems (tooth decay, periodontal disease) even though they brush many times per day (but no one of their individual brushing events is long enough to produce a thorough cleaning). Every person needs to understand that oral health can only be achieved and maintained by way of practicing effective home care techniques.

How we see things.

Bottom line, we think that the FlexCare is a great sonic toothbrush. It offers a combination of features, many of them state of the art, that all together as a package make this toothbrush very appealing. What we don't think, however, is that we would buy the FlexCare just because it offers its Massage mode and Go Care and Max Care brushing routines. We personally would opt to run this toothbrush only in its Clean (full-power, 31,000-brush-strokes-per-minute) mode. A setting that other, less expensive, Sonicare models share (or seem to come very close to emulating).