Emmi-Dent Platinum review

How the Emmi-Dent Platinum looks, feels and works

On quick glance, you wouldn’t question the Platinum for being anything other than a regular electric toothbrush. But, although it looks similar, it functions differently.

Ultrasonic toothbrushes work differently

Built into each of the emmi-dent toothbrush heads is a ‘piezo chip’.

This works in conjunction with the piezo ceramic disc in the toothbrush to generate and transmit the ultrasonic waves down through the bristles of the toothbrush head and into the teeth and gums.

These waves can travel as much as 12mm below the gumline to disrupt the bacterial chains that make up plaque.

Compared to a typical ‘sonic’ toothbrush that offers in the region of 15-40,000 bristle movements per minute, the piezo technology is generating 96,000,000 pulses per minute.

These waves create nanobubbles which essentially explode and create a blast that breaks the bonds that hold the molecules together. They are being forced apart, disrupting and making the plaque no longer harmful.

The technology was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the early 1990s it operates at a safe low-power medical frequency of 1.6MHz.

No need to move the toothbrush to brush the teeth

One of the main appeals is that you don’t actually need to move the bristles of the toothbrush across the tooth and gum surface like you might with a regular manual or even electric toothbrush.

Plaque is natural and everyone has it, but we don’t want it to build up. We want to remove it. Manual movement of the brush across the teeth will disrupt plaque and break it up. This is the whole point of toothbrushing.

Because the ultrasound waves created can break up the bacterial chains, the mechanical action that comes from moving the bristles across the tooth surface is no longer needed.

The waves can actually penetrate deeper than most toothbrush bristles too, as it works through the soft tissues in the mouth.

Less wear on the teeth & gums

Moving bristles across the tooth surface does cause some wear or abrasion. Typically, with good quality bristles this abrasion is low, but it does occur.

Repeated abrasion over many years can potentially have negative consequences for your teeth.

Emmi-dent focus on the fact that you don’t need to have this bristle movement and thus there is no abrasion to the tooth and gum surfaces.

In particular circumstances, this can be very beneficial.

But, for the vast majority of users, I am not sure this abrasion is of major concern.

Assuming you adopt the correct techniques then years of brushing isn’t going to lead to any significant long term damage to your teeth. If it were, we would know by now. Nylon bristled brushes have been in use for hundreds of years.

How you use the toothbrush is different

The approach you take to brushing the teeth with Emmi-Dent is different.

You first need to brush or apply a small layer of toothpaste to the teeth.

It is recommended to use their specially formulated toothpaste which is supposed to help maximize the effectiveness of the toothbrush and plaque removal. A tube is included with the brush. 

The paste is enriched with microbubbles. When the waves hit the bubbles, they destroy their structure. This results in a suction effect. This removes the biofilm and plaque.

I question how necessary this is, as it is my understanding toothpaste technically isn’t required. Do your own research and make your own informed decision on this.

You then place the toothbrush against the teeth. Typically the head will cover 2-3 teeth at a time.

You then move the brush after about 6 seconds to the next 2-3 teeth. 

You repeat this all around the mouth and across the various tooth surfaces.  This takes about 3 minutes in total.

Once complete, you make a few quick passes of the brush across the teeth, brushing like you would with a manual brush to remove the now disrupted plaque chains.

It is then advised to rinse and spit.

At no point during the main brushing do you need to move the brush up and down, in circular motions or even hold it at 45 degrees to the gumline.

You just rest the bristles on the teeth and move.

Interestingly, competitor Megasonex actually recommends brushing as you would with a manual toothbrush. Although the science says you don’t need to, I think they are focusing on achieving maximum beneficial effects.

Here's a video that shows you how to use it.

Replacement brush heads are needed

Despite the limited use of the bristles on the brush head, it is advised to replace these every 3 months.

I am not entirely sure how necessary this is as the bristles are in reality doing very little work. They can’t be worn at the same rate as regular toothbrush bristles are.

It likely has something to do with the plaque/bacteria that get trapped in the bristles. At least that is my best guess.

It also begs the question somewhat why emmi-dent offer different styles of brush head. They offer a standard and compact sized head. This makes some sense for different sized mouths. But, do we need a flat, wavy and a braces brush head?!

It is worth noting that the connectors on these brush heads are like nothing else I have seen.

They have 4 pins on them that fit into the handle. They connect only 1 way.

The connection is used to ensure effectiveness and I believe it also prevents aftermarket heads being made available.

Backed by clinical study

Quite a few studies have been conducted to show the benefits of ultrasonic brushes, particularly compared to manual toothbrushes.

Most have shown how they have positive impacts on oral health and plaque reduction.

There are not really many studies that compare ultrasonic with regular sonic or oscillating and rotating brushes.

And there are far fewer studies supporting ultrasonic brushes than there are regular electric toothbrushes.

The parent company behind emmi-dent has clearly invested in research with several pieces coming from ORMED Institute for Oral Medicine at the University of Witten/ Herdecke to show how ultrasound brushes are effective.

My interpretation of the studies that have been conducted is that whilst ultrasonic waves are proven to be effective in disrupting plaque, there isn’t yet evidence to really suggest that such products are so good you really should switch.

The results are impressive considering there is no mechanical action, but in most cases, the results are not clinically significant.

In a 2018 study by Gaengler et al,  they confirmed earlier results that plaque reduction was achieved with ultrasonic toothbrushing, and the advantage of the ultrasonic brush was the wear free action. This study was funded by emmi-dent’s parent company.

Interestingly, a few years earlier in 2015, Hashizume and Dariva confirmed that a toothbrush with both sonic and ultrasonic vibrations did result in a lower bacterial count compared to ultrasonic only.  

Given the lack of study and evidence of clinical effectiveness over existing tools, it is likely the reason why few dental professionals actually promote or recommend ultrasonic over conventional tools.

3 minute cleanings rather than 2

It is advised to brush for 3 minutes in total, 2 times per day. This is different to the usual 2 minutes twice a day. The different brushing approach has a part to play here.

It will vary slightly from 1 person to another, but to cover all the teeth properly, I felt like I need to position the brush about 16-18 times per arch depending on how thorough I was. That’s up to 36 times per brushing session. 

If you stick to the pacing the brush offers, that totals 216 seconds of 3 and a half minutes. That’s 30 seconds than suggested.

Possibly I could drop that down a smidge as I was probably recovering sections as I repositioned, but I wanted to ensure a thorough clean.

It isn’t a huge time difference, but something to bear in mind if you are considering switching from a manual brush.

Unlike regular toothbrushing, the over-brushing argument doesn’t quite apply.

That said, although there is no evidence I know of, I don’t think you are going to get much benefit to brush for longer than 3 minutes. If you did, the level of return per minute spent would be much less.

The pacing is different

As a consequence of the technique, the pace of the brushing is different.

You won’t break the mouth up into 4 sections (quadrants) and spend 30 seconds on each. Nor 6 sections (sextants) and spend 20 seconds on each.

Instead, you spend approximately 6 seconds per 2-3 teeth, per surface.

The brush actually gives an audible notification after 6 seconds which is your cue to move the brush to the next 2-3 teeth. I like this.

Automatic power off, after 6 minutes

The toothbrush automatically powers off, if left switched on, after 6 minutes. Given the recommended brushing time is 3 minutes, setting it to 3 would seem more appropriate to me.

But here is the odd thing. This doesn’t work in the ultrasonic mode only.

If there was a mode to have automatic power off I would have suggested it was this one. Because it is silent in operation it is very easy to forget it is switched on.

2 cleaning modes are available

It comes with 2 cleaning modes although the company doesn’t really shout about this.

When you first power the brush on, gentle vibrations are generated and passed through the bristles. Little comment is made on their website, or in the instructions about the vibrations. I do believe these to be sonic vibrations based on the movement, sound and sensation produced.

It isn’t specified anywhere how many vibrations per minute, but I can tell it is very low.  If I were to guess I would say in the region of 5-7,000 vibrations per minute. It feels very gentle and ultimately quite weak.

I did reach out to the company, to get some clarity. They acknowledge it generates vibrations, but apparently this is just to show the brush is turned on. They have no effect on the cleaning. They didn’t specify how many vibrations it produces.

I am not sure what the point of these really are when the company advocates for ultrasound only and no abrasion from brush bristles.

If it is, as they suggest just to show the brush is on, why have the ultrasound only mode?

I would argue the bristles vibrate enough to have a small cleaning effect with the most minimal of abrasion. You can feel these doing something when you use it for sure.

In this mode, at 6 second intervals, the pacer kicks in to tell you to move the brush from one set of teeth to another.

At the same time, the LEDs move through a sequence on the handle too. These LEDs run through a sequence every 3 seconds. 1 LED, 2 LEDs, 3 LEDs. So for every 6 second pacing, the 3 LEDs get lit twice.

The second mode is ultrasound only.

There are no bristle movements. There is no sound. You wouldn’t know it was even functioning other than the light on the brush handle.

You use the brush in the same way in this mode, you just don’t get the audible alerts to move every 6 seconds. The LEDs on the handle do light up though.

The LEDs are not easy to see when in use due to their position. They are facing you, so even in a mirror it isn’t ideal.

Why is the pacing different in this mode?

You can’t quickly switch between the 2 modes. You don’t power the brush on, press a switch and you are on the next mode.

Instead what you have to do is press and hold on the power button for 9-10 seconds. As you do, the brush will power on and then give you a confirmation LED after the seconds have passed.

It will then be set to the other mode.

To change back to the previous mode, you repeat this task.

Once the mode is changed, it will remember and default to this next time.

It could look and feel a lot better

The Platinum is made from lightweight and robust plastic.

I can’t really grumble about this, because it's incredibly practical. The vast majority of brushes are plastic.

But the overall look and design of the handle are dated and feel cheap. It gives no feeling of quality when in hand. It looks and feels like a product of 10+ years ago. Put this next to an Oral-B iO Series or any Sonicare brush and you will soon see what I mean.

I believe the function is most important, but that doesn’t mean design needs to be forgotten about.

I think ergonomically it works quite well. The whole handle tapers to be wider at the bottom than it is at the top. The side and back are curved to help with grip. 

The front of the unit is basically flat, with the centrally placed power button standing a little proud. The thumb naturally falls to the power button and it isn’t too resistive.

I have the blue coloured unit, you can get it in black and white too. This colour is for the back and side panel of the brush.

All have the silver front to the handle.

The emmi-dent logo and model name are printed on the front of the handle and stand out.

The LED display works but is potentially more complicated than it needs to be. I can’t help but think individual LEDs with icons would work better.

The brush does stand upright on a flat surface. And when laid flat it won’t roll thanks to well placed plastic nodules that prevent this.

It works and does what it needs to, but for the sort of money you are spending on this, it could look a bit more fitting of the price. The competition does it better.

No pressure sensor

Something we advocate for an electric toothbrush is a pressure sensor. This is because it is all too easy to brush with too much force and do damage to the teeth and gums.

The Platinum does not have a pressure sensor. And to be fair, it potentially doesn’t need one, because the approach to brushing is different.

As you are only resting the bristles on the teeth you can’t really do damage.

Silent in operation

If you use the ultrasonic only mode, the brush is silent. It produces 0 decibels. You wouldn’t even know it is switched on.

The only sound is the ‘click’ from the button as you turn it on or off.

When using the default mode of ultrasound+sonic vibrations it produces around 45 decibels of sound. This peaks at 56 when the pacer kicks in every 6 seconds.

No accessories

Not that you need them, but the platinum doesn’t come with any extra accessories like a travel case.

You can buy one separately, but it would be nice if this were included.