Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 4100 Electric Rechargeable Toothbrush, Plaque Control, Black

Product Information

The Sonicare 4100 really should be more than adequate for your son. The 5100 and 6100 have extra benefits, but they are not ‘required’. As it stands, although the 1100 is based on the retail price the cheapest. In reality, the average discount on the 2100 Series is higher, making the average selling price lower than the 1100. The differences between each model relates more to everyday use and helping you to get the best from your oral care routine. I don’t believe it is a feature we are all crying out for, but as things go, it is a nice addition and makes further use of the microchip in the brush head.

At the same time, the brush head replacement light will flash, although this is nigh on impossible to actually see. It will also delay alerting you to replace the brush head. If you used that head just once a day over 3 months, it would not tell you to replace it until it had been used for the equivalent to 4 minutes a day for 3 months. Having thoroughly tested both of the ranges, I recommend Oral-B electric toothbrushes, specifically the Oral-B Pro 3 3500, as the best value and overall top choice. The Sonicare equivalent to the Pro 3 3500 is the ProtectiveClean 4300. It does compete well and is a good alternative, but for superior value, Oral-B is the winner. I achieved 17 days of use on the higher of the 2 brushing intensities but a staggering 41 days on the lower. So it is safe to say that the minimum you will achieve is the 2 weeks Philips claim.It can be argued that the 5100 and 6100 can offer a better Gum Care and Whitening focused cleans over and above the 4100 because of the extra modes they have. Keep the power on/off button pressed until you hear a series of three short beeps (after 7 seconds).

As the names imply, low is a more gentle and less vigorous brushing sensation. This option is ideally suited for new electric brush users or those with sensitivity in the teeth or gums. Plaque is the very reason we brush our teeth, so the more of it we can disrupt and remove the better.

Much more detail is provided in our ultimate Philips Sonicare brush head guidebut, you can perhaps see why each brush head comes supplied with each brush and how using the Gum Care brush head is likely to deliver better results when used on the Gum Care mode than others. My old Sonicare shaft vibrated just fine but sometimes the vibration did not transfer to the brush unless I pressed on the brush in a certain way. Most YouTube fixit videos for the Sonicare had to do with the shaft being loose. Mine was not. I couldn’t figure out the problem so I just bought the newer 4100. Sonicare made the change to the power/brush strokes with the introduction of the 4100 Series which was in 2021.