Oral B iO Series 9 Review : 1 Year Later - Is it Worth it ?

Oral B iO Series 9 Review : 1 Year Later – Is it Worth it ?

The Oral-B iO Series 9 toothbrush. Professional cleaning at home or overpriced electric brush ? Let’s find out.

Ah dental hygiene. Much like anything health-related, it’s one of those things where you don’t know how good you had it until your tooth starts explicitly telling you how bad of a state it’s in.

If you’re looking for a way to improve your oral hygiene and get a brighter smile, you might want to consider switching to an electric toothbrush. Electric toothbrushes are generally known to be more effective than manual ones at removing plaque, bacteria and stains from your teeth and gums They also have features like timers, pressure sensors and brush head replacement indicators that can help you brush better and avoid damaging your enamel or gums.

Companies round the globe are releasing all kinds of toothbrushes with the latest and greatest features in the hopes of improving our dental health. None more so than Oral-B, who released their iO series of electric toothbrushes back in 2020, claiming it as “The Biggest Innovation in Oral Care History”. Safe to say, they came out swinging, releasing not one, but SEVEN iO electric toothbrushes across the price and features board from the iO Series 3 to the iO Series 9.

Now I managed to stumble across these last year and being a rather health-conscious person who goes for his regular dental cleaning appointment, I took the professional approach and said “ooo I want one”. So I went down my rabbit hole and analyzed, listed and compared all the iO series toothbrushes and made my conclusion days later. I was going to buy the top of the range iO Series 9, the supposed Rolls-Royce of all toothbrushes. Soon after (with condolences to my wallet), I bought it and have been using it for almost a year now…was I wrong ? I figured other people may well be considering this toothbrush as well and are looking for some guidance. Which is probably why you’re reading this right now. So here you go.

Build & Design

I think safe to say that the first thing that gets people onto this is its design. It is a beautiful little piece of engineering with a slim, streamlined body and a nicely integrated display. The brush comes in four colours – Black Onyx, White Alabaster, Rose Quartz and Aqua Marine – which all look sleek and polished.

When you get it in your hand, you can feel the build quality. It does feel like a high-quality, durable product. The brushed metal handle is rounded off and fits into the hand quite nicely. Measuring in at about 23.5cm (9.3 inches) in height, it’s long enough to reach all areas of your mouth without you having to strain your hand much, making it quite an ergonomic brush overall.

BUILD & DESIGN SCORE : 9/10

Battery Life

Oh boy. This one really took me by surprise.

From what I have been able to find, the Oral-B iO Series 9 uses a lithium-ion battery which they claim should generally “last more than 2 weeks on a full charge” (source: https://oralb.com/en-us/how-long-do-batteries-in-an-oral-b-battery-powered-toothbrush-last/ ). Other reviewers also quote at least over 10 days battery life, assuming you brush twice a day (which you should). The iO Series 9 toothbrush can be charged using either the provided magnetic charging stand or the charging travel case, which is definitely nice to have the two options available.

In my experience, for the first month or two, I was getting about 10 days of battery on a single charge. However, this gradually started to diminish. After 6 months, I was getting under a week’s worth of battery. Fast forward 9 months later, I was getting about 3-4 days of battery life! What’s even worse is that at the very time of me writing this, I cannot seem to get my toothbrush to charge more than 20%! I’ve tried the charging puck and I’ve tried the charging travel case. No luck.

Now you might be thinking, “Alpha, you just have a faulty device”. Perhaps I do, but here’s the really interesting thing. At the exact same time as me buying this toothbrush, my wife and my brother bought one as well, and guess what? My brother had the same issue! That’s 2 out of 3 devices having a messed up battery. Now I haven’t been able to come across many other reviewers reviewing this after 1 year, as most reviews are following a few weeks of use, but it seems like most people getting 14 or less days of battery is leaving people somewhat disappointed.

BATTERY SCORE : 1/10

Features

The Oral-B iO Series 9, being the top of the line model, surely enough, comes with a number of features that aim to make it stand out from the pack.

Pressure Sensor:

The Oral-B iO Series 9 does come with a pressure sensor built into the handle, where the colour ring alternates between green (brushing with good amount of pressure) and red (brushing too hard). From my experience, this works well and really does make you aware of how much pressure you naturally put, cause as it turns out, many people brush much harder than they need to, leading to problems in their gums, tooth coating (the enamel) etc. This explains why more likely than not, your regular toothbrush’s bristles are pretty frayed at the end of 3 months. You’re brushing too hard my friend. On a side note, if you are using a regular toothbrush, for the love of God, please don’t use a “medium” or “hard” bristled toothbrush. ALWAYS USE SOFT. This will save your oral health a lot of headaches….toothaches.

3D Brushing Recognition:

One of the most unique features of the Series 9, that I haven’t seen on the same level in any other toothbrush is its brushing zone recognition feature. As per Oral-B, the brush “uses highly sophisticated 3D Brushing Recognition and Al Technology to assess your brushing behaviors across the 16 zones in your mouth”. So the toothbrush basically connects with the Oral-B app on your phone and tracks your brushing while you brush, with each area of your mouth visually getting whiter until it’s sparkly white, indicating that you’re done. Now this is cool. It does track fairly decently, although I did find sometimes I had to kind of stay in an area for a little longer for it to detect that I’m brushing that exact spot. While this does help make sure you leave no stone unturned, I did find myself taking longer than the needed 2 minutes to finish all areas – on average took me 2.5-3 minutes to complete. Also I should mention that after 3-4 months of tracking, I just kind of stopped using it as I got the hang of what I needed to do. So overall, it’s neat. Maybe just not an absolute necessity. If you are doubtful about your brushing habits or have a feeling you’re missing some areas, then it could be worth the investment. It is worth noting that the Series 5 to Series 8 have brushing recognition as well, though with less detail in each model as you “go down”.

Timer:

The Series 9 does also come with an in-built timer with quadrant vibrations to keep you on track. I think this is a bare minimum that all electric toothbrushes should have now. The Series 9 has a nice little colour display which visually presents the timer and vibrates every 30 seconds to ensure that you cover all areas of your mouth. Whether you are using the app or not, it still there, it’s pretty and it works well.

Different Brushing Modes:

The Series 9 comes with 7 smart brushing modes with varying intensity and strength. These include:

Daily Clean
Sensitive
Super Sensitive
Whiten
Gum Care
Intense
Tongue Clean

Now that’s a hefty number of modes which I think is nice to have based on your needs. Daily Clean or Sensitive will probably be the main day to day mode for most people depending on their teeth (some people may find the Daily Clean to be too hard, especially in the beginning while you get used to it). Other modes like Whiten, Gum Care and Intense, I didn’t really find much need for, especially the latter. I couldn’t come across any detailed explanations of the different modes and how those vibrations help with things like Whitening, but oh well, it’s there if you want it. As far as the tongue cleaning mode goes (which is exclusive to the iO Series 9), I don’t think it’s better than those dedicated tongue brushes/scrapers, but I did notice it clean a bit of the white gunk off (sorry for the visualization, but it had to be said). The tongue cleaning mode has its own 30 second timer, which is a bit longer than I would normally brush my tongue for, but it’s a good feature to have.

App:

As mentioned above, the Series 9 does connect with the Oral-B app which gives you a deep look into everything about your toothbrush. While it’s not mandatory to have, it does help with a bunch of added features like:

Brush recognition and tracking
Visually looking at the timer and pressure while brushing
Brush head lifespan and replacement notifications
Brushing history and analytics
Brushing habit building challenges/routines

While all that is nice, I was ultimately left unsatisfied. Why you may ask. I mentioned earlier that after 3-4 months of tracking, I stopped connecting to my phone causing I didn’t have the time to set it up every morning. However, after 6 months I tried to connecting to my phone again to see the brush head lifespan and mark that I had changed it, but to my disappointment, my brush was not connecting to the app! I tried multiple times, I reset the toothbrush, I uninstalled the app. Nothing worked. To this day, I have no idea why. I just had to give up.

Overall, I would say the Oral-B iO Series 9 does come with a host of features that most, if not all, other brushes have together in one package. I was satisfied. But once again, I found longevity to be its downfall, as this time, the app connectivity failed me. Adding to my battery life woes.

FEATURES SCORE : 8/10

Cleaning Ability

Now let’s get to the root of the matter (ha-ha-ha get it ?). A toothbrush’s ability to clean teeth effectively is the most important thing, and that’s where electric toothbrushes are supposed to have the edge, with their ability to have more vibrations and oscillations per minute compared to a manual toothbrush. Oral-B claims “its round brush head surrounds each tooth for 100% cleaner teeth and healthier gums”.

From my experience, I can say it does clean your teeth really well. I noticed it was even able to remove small pieces of food that I had stuck in between my teeth, which normally I would have needed to floss. Now I’m not saying this is a replacement for floss (I will do my due diligence and mention that you should be flossing daily). I still need floss here and there, but it clearly does clean more effectively than my manual toothbrush. It’s even accepted by the American Dental Association (ADA). While I have no real complaints here, I will mention that in the beginning I did find the vibrations to be a bit harsh and I found myself bleeding a little on two occasions. I did try out the gum care and sensitive modes afterwards and that helped. Just a note to those with more sensitive teeth and gums to go gentle.

CLEANING ABILITY SCORE : 9/10

Cost

So how much is all of this going to set you back? The Oral-B comes in at a hefty USD $299.99 / GBP £250. This includes a total of 4 brush heads, so assuming you’re replacing it every 3 months, that should last you about a year. Now it does go on sale here and there. I got mine on Amazon during their Prime Day sale for about USD $240. Perhaps you could find it for cheaper elsewhere.

After your first year, you’re going to have to invest in some brush heads. Now the Oral-B iO Series toothbrushes uses dedicated iO brush heads (unlike the other models of Oral-B electric toothbrushes which all use interchangeable heads) – Oral-B iO Ultimate Clean & Oral-B iO Gentle Care. This will set you back about USD $30-35 / GBP £24-28 for a pack of four heads, i.e. one year’s supply. You could also opt for a pack of 6 brush heads for a better per-head-cost. While this is more expensive that other brush heads, It does clean well and I guess that’s what you’re paying for along with all the features. If you try it for yourself and really like the toothbrush after one year, it may be worth it for healthy teeth.

COST SCORE : 4/10

Verdict

So what’s the verdict then? Overall, I think it’s a smart toothbrush with good looks, great cleaning ability and neat features. I wanted to love it. I really did, but the battery life and technical issues were really the dealbreaker for me. It came to a point where not only could I not connect to the app, but I couldn’t even get a single use out of it because the battery was shot. While I couldn’t get a replacement with the warranty, Amazon was nice enough to accept a return and refund me the amount which I was grateful for. Since returning it, I have reverted back to my manual toothbrush, but I find myself longing for an electric toothbrush because of the difference I felt. Clearly the Oral-B iO Series 9 has left a mark on me.

Should you buy it? Probably not. I would recommend trying one of the other iO models instead. If you want the vast majority of the features I mentioned here, perhaps the Series 7 would be more appropriate at a fraction of the price. Or if you don’t care too much about the fancy features and want a good electric toothbrush, perhaps the Series 4 or 5 will be your cup of tea. I like the Oral-B iO line. I’ll probably try my luck with a cheaper model soon. But the Series 9…I think I’ll pass.

Build & Design

Battery Life

Features

Cleaning Ability

Cost

Pros: