Colgate offers three different brush heads and each is designed to do something slightly different. Three is actually a small number compared to Oral-B and Sonicare, but it keeps things simple and ultimately it's your brushing technique that is more important than the brush head you choose.
In the sections below I explain why you might want to choose one brush head over another.
Best all-round Colgate electric toothbrush head
It's hard to say exactly which brush head is 'the best' because it depends on your own situation, but to make a sweeping generalisation, I would say that the ‘Deep Clean’ brush head is the best solution for most users to opt for. It is an ideal all rounder.
Best Colgate brush head for sensitive teeth
Whilst many of us enjoy pain free brushing, if you are one of those who find the whole experience to be uncomfortable due to the sensitivity you have in your teeth and gums, you need something that as best as possible eases that pain, but still cleans effectively.
If you suffer with sensitivity you may want to use the Colgate Sensitive brush head.
The soft bristles clean the teeth effectively but do so with a not so aggressive approach allowing you to benefit from the enhanced clean an electric toothbrush brings but hopefully without the same discomfort.
If you regularly experience sensitive teeth and gums, you should seek further advice from a dentist as you may need to consider a change in diet, specialist toothpastes or even dental work.
Best Colgate brush head for whitening teeth
Having white teeth can often give us an extra confidence that allows us to smile and feel better within ourselves. Often when we look good, we feel good.
Whist you might have to undergo professional whitening to get that ‘Hollywood smile’, it is perfectly possible to improve the shade of your teeth from the comfort of your home and at a much lesser price.
Using the Colgate Whitening brush head alongside a decent quality whitening toothpaste can improve your tooth colour by 2-3 shades. Those with heavily stained teeth will see the greatest improvements.
Depending on your model of brush there may too be a more suitable cleaning mode, such as Optimum which delivers more power to help buff those teeth to give them that gleam you desire.
Best Colgate brush head for braces
You likely don't need me to reiterate the importance of brushing your teeth, especially when you have braces. Nobody really wants to be left with staining on their teeth when the are removed.
By their very nature fixed braces give greater surface area for food and debris to stick to and more places for bacteria and plaque to build.
It is easy to think that you need specialist brushes and they do exist.
However, with a Colgate electric toothbrush you can use any of the brush heads safely with braces, you do not need a special brush head.
Competing brand Oral-B do recommend an Ortho brush head, but this is not essential.
However to ensure you cleaning as effectively as possible, specialist interdental brushes such as those by Tepe are advised as part of a good cleaning regime.
Which brush head should I use?
Only you can really decide which is the best brush head to use.
My recommendation for all round cleaning is the Deep Clean brush head.
However, if you are on a mission for whiter teeth there is potentially a benefit in opting for the whitening head. Whilst the sensitive brush head will be more suited for those who suffer pain, bleeding or experience discomfort when brushing.
All brush heads will help to remove more plaque than a manual toothbrush whilst improving gum health and your overall oral hygiene so it is not like any will clean terribly, some are just engineered differently to achieve a slightly different result.
Cleaning your teeth properly twice a day for 2 minutes each time is the most important part here.
Our full article on how to brush your teeth with an electric toothbrush explains the correct way to brush your teeth as a poor teeth cleaning approach is more damaging than the incorrect brush head. The reality is each brush head can just give that extra bit of focus in achieving and assisting oral health care goals.
The full Colgate toothbrush heads range and where to buy them
The full range of Colgate brush heads and pack sizes are as follows.
- Deep Clean
- 2 pack in White
- 2 pack in Black
- Whitening
- 4 pack in White
- Sensitive
- 4 pack in White
It's always worth shopping around to get the best deal. I suggest checking a range of retailers when you need to buy new brush heads:
Colgate Omron toothbrush heads explained
I will now go on to explain the Colgate ProClinical brush heads in detail and make it easier for you to understand which brush head to opt for.
Colgate Omron replacement heads
Colgate electric toothbrushes have been made in partnership with Omron.
This therefore means that Colgate Omron replacement heads are the same as Colgate electric toothbrush heads.
So, if you searched for Omron toothbrush heads and found this article, then these heads should fit your toothbrush.
Just 3 different brush heads - one size fits all:
At the time of writing the Colgate ProClinical line of electric toothbrushes have a one size fits all approach to their brush heads.
This means that the brush heads fit to any of the ProClinical toothbrush handles.
You may well be pleased to know that in comparison to the likes of Sonicare, your choices are far less complicated.
There are less brush heads to chose from and they come in just 1 size.
Interchangeable heads
Whether you expected it or not, the good news is that all 3 brush heads fit all of the Colgate ProClinical line of brush handles.
The brush heads are fully interchangeable.
This means the brush heads fit a ProClinical 250R or 500 toothbrush handle.
Just push them onto and pull them off of the brush handle.
One of the biggest benefits of this design and interchangeable nature is that it allows you to take advantage of the different benefits both brush handle and head bring.
If your oral hygiene goal is whiter teeth, you can select a brush handle and appropriate brush head that help achieve this goal.
It also accommodates the needs of families where a brush handle may well be shared amongst different users.
No longer does one person in a household need to have a different brush to another. Share the same handle, just swap the brush head.
You then have different pack sizes:
Assuming you will be able to decide which brush head is for you, you will then need to consider what pack size to buy.
Typically the 4 different brush heads come in packs of 2 or 4.
In many instances what you can buy is determined by the retailer and the availability. Not all stock all the range in both pack sizes for example.
Typically purchasing the larger pack works out more cost effective.
What does each brush head do?
Now for a little more detail on each of the the different brush head types and what they are used for.
360 Deep Clean
The deep clean brush head is designed to target 4 key areas when brushing.
At the top of the head are soft tipped bristles to sweep and clean along the gumline.
Powertip bristles to clean deep in between teeth and hard to reach areas.
A soft rubber cup polishes teeth, to buff them and help make them whiter.
On the back of the brush head is a rubber tongue and cheek cleaner. The textured surface helps remove odour causing bacteria from the surface.
This brush head clips on and off your brush handle for a secure fit and easy maintenance and cleaning.
It fits all Colgate ProClinical electric toothbrush handles.
This head also has reminder or indicator bristles which fade over time as you use the brush head. These reminder bristles begin begin being Blue in colour but fade to white. This helps you monitor when it is time to replace the head. For optimal results, replace your brush head every three months.
You can buy them in the following pack sizes:
- 2 pack in White
- 2 pack in Black
The Deep Clean brush head is compatible with:
360 Deep Clean brush head work with all Colgate ProClinical electric toothbrush handles.
360 Whitening
The 360 Whitening head is one of the newer options available from Colgate specifically focused on achieving whiter teeth.
There are 4 key features to this brush head and the bristles that form a part of it.
At the top there are Blue and White spiral bristles that help remove surface stains.
A soft rubber cup in the centre of the brush polishes teeth to achieve that dentist like clean finish to the teeth.
Thin tipped and soft bristles sweep along the gumline to remove as much plaque and bacteria as possible to leave a clean and fresh feeling in the mouth.
On the back of the brush head is a rubber tongue and cheek cleaner. The textured surface helps remove odour causing bacteria from the surface.
This brush head clips on and off your brush handle for a secure fit and easy maintenance and cleaning.
It fits all Colgate ProClinical electric toothbrush handles.
This head also has reminder or indicator bristles which fade over time as you use the brush head. These reminder bristles begin being Blue in colour but fade to white. This helps you monitor when it is time to replace the head. For optimal results, replace your brush head every three months.
You can buy them in the following pack sizes:
- 4 pack in White
The Whitening brush head is compatible with:
360 Whitening brush heads work with all Colgate ProClinical electric toothbrush handles.
Sensitive
The Sensitive brush head is focused achieving deep cleaning, but in a way that is more sensitive than most other brush heads. If you suffer from sensitive teeth and gums this could be the brush head of choice.
Ultra soft tapered bristles clean gently along the gum line whilst extra fine inner bristles are focused on cleaning the tooth surfaces
This brush head clips on and off your brush handle for a secure fit and easy maintenance and cleaning.
It fits all Colgate ProClinical electric toothbrush handles.
Each refill brush within the pack has a different coloured strip for easy identification, ideal if used in a family environment, a different colour for each user.
This head also has reminder or indicator bristles which fade over time as you use the brush head. These reminder bristles begin begin being Blue in colour but fade to white. This helps you monitor when it is time to replace the head. For optimal results, replace your brush head every three months.
You can buy them in the following pack sizes:
- 4 pack in White
The Sensitive brush head is compatible with:
The Sensitive brush head work with all Colgate ProClinical electric toothbrush handles.
When to replace your Colgate electric toothbrush head
Your dentist or hygienist may tell you to brush twice a day for 2 minutes.
They may also tell you to replace your toothbrush every 3 months too.
They are not saying this for a bit of fun, it is because this advice is based on years of testing and experience.
After 3 month's of brushing twice a day, your head has gone through quite a lot. And more often than not the head is worn out.
Modern production standards mean that for many the brush head still looks in very good shape, but it is advisable to replace it still.
Just a few stray bristles can be doing more damage than you think. You don't want to be undoing the benefits of regular brushing with an electric toothbrush.
What might appear to be a perfectly acceptable and usable brush head can be doing more damage than you may think.
As a head is used, the bristles become worn, they can fray and become softer and less effective. When new bristles are normally quite tightly formed in a group together but over
weeks of use will gradually start to part. It is at this stage that the brush heads lose their effectiveness.
Reminder bristles will act to encourage you to replace them when necessary if you do not mark the replacement date in your diary or subscribe to services that deliver new heads every 3 months to you.
Fading indicator & reminder bristles
It is all too easy to forget when the brush head on your handle was last changed.
Reminder or indicator bristles give you a guide to the usable life left.
Particular bristles on the head will start out Blue and will over a 3 month period fade to White.
The lighter the bristles, the older and more worn the brush head is.
At first glance it may not be obvious, but brush heads lose stiffness and gradually wear down over months of normal use.
For optimal results, replace your brush head every three months.
Bristle condition
Your teeth and gums are important and using a brush head with bristles in poor condition is almost as damaging as not cleaning your teeth at all.
It is important that the bristles on your Colgate brush remain in good condition. If they are splitting, fraying or becoming misshapen, look at replacing.
Take a look at the bristles, are they still fairly uniform in their direction and look. Does the bristle layout look similar to when the brush head was new?
Are the Blue indicator bristles now white?
All of these things are signs to potentially change your brush head.
Brushing with too much pressure is often a cause of wearing out brush heads quicker than normal.
A brush head should be replaced on average every 3 months. For some, this will be sooner, if your bristles are wearing faster.
How to replace your Colgate electric toothbrush head
Push on and pull off.
The brush heads on Colgate ProClinical brush handles push on and pull off.
Existing brush heads can be removed from the brush handle, by gently pulling the head away from the brush handle. By pulling the handle the opposite direction to the pull of the head the 2 pieces will detach. Little force is needed.
To fit a head, push the brush head onto and over the shaft that extends from the top of the brush handle. By pushing the handle and head towards each other they will come together.
Once fitted, the head should sit securely in place.
Which brush heads are compatible with my Colgate toothbrush?
The Colgate Deep Clean, Whitening and Sensitive work with all ProClinical brush handles. This includes:
- Proclinical 150
- Proclincal 250
- ProClinicare 250+
- ProClinical 250R
- ProClincial 500R
