Oral-B Junior Smart Review

Design, usability, clean & general use

The physical packaging of the Junior Smart very much fits in with typical Oral-B colours, Blue.

However, unlike the boxes designed to grab the attention of adults, the background to the Junior Smart box has faded comic style illustrations of teeth, mouths, water, toothpaste and more that just give it that edge and makes it stand out from the rest.

As the ‘what’s in the box’ section will show, you don’t get an awful lot supplied, but then again you don’t necessarily need a lot.

Now, there is much to like about this brush, but before I explain what the brush handle is like to hold and use, let me just touch upon the fact that the Junior Smart is essentially a repackaged Oral-B Smart 4 4000.

This is in many ways very clever and a practical choice by Oral-B, but in another way it is potentially a little deceitful as you could pay a premium for the Junior Smart when you could buy the Smart 4 4000 that I have reviewed.

What sets the 2 models apart is that the Junior has a design on the handles rubber grip that is appealing to children and the box contents of the Junior contains a little less (1 less brush head and no brush head stand). As far as I am aware, everything else is the same.

Thus as you may well imagine, there isn’t all that much that is aimed at kids with this brush.

Perhaps including some sort of child friendly paper based brushing guide would just add that extra edge to make it a bit more engaging for the child from the moment it gets taken out of the box.

But, it is not as bad as it may seem. I will explain why throughout the remainder of this review.

In hand, the Junior feels good, solid, durable and practical.

The body of the brush handle is primarily plastic in construction, a gloss white plastic. The front of the brush handle has a large rubber grip that runs down it and the back of the handle has a series of raised plastic ridges. Together these act as gripping points to keep the brush secure in hand.

The handle is the same size as an adult toothbrush, but it is rounded in its design and fairly slim so there is no reason why most children could not hold onto this toothbrush comfortably.

To make this Junior model stand out and appeal to the intended age group, there is a decal/pattern that is centrally placed within the white rubber grip that runs down the front of the brush handle.

The hands on images show this best. Essentially printed on the grip is what looks like a load of doodles. This design contains illustrations of teeth, toothpaste, toothbrushes and similar things in different colours (blue, purple and green). It is certainly a bit different and adds a slight fun element to the handle.

The rubber grip runs top to bottom on the front of the brush handle.

In the upper third of the handle is the main power button that turns the brush on and off and allows you to select the cleaning modes available.

Above and below the button are a series of ridges that help your child grip the handle and guide their fingers to the controls of the brush.

The power button is white in colour with a blue power icon on it. The contrasting colour of the icon helps it stand out against all the white body.

With a convex design the button stands slightly proud and has a good level of resistance, meaning it’s not too easily activated by mistake, but easy enough to press to stop and start the brush motor.

Sitting a little below the power button, just before the decal kicks in, is a Bluetooth logo, giving an indication to the smart capabilities this brush has.

The lower third of the brush handle has the Oral-B and Braun logo in grey/black as well as a battery and charging icon below them.

These icons are transparent and have an LED light behind them that illuminate at certain times. I will explain what these lights mean in the battery life section of this review.

The back of the brush handle has these raised horizontal notches that give the fingertips grip. These run from the top to about halfway down the handle.

Right at the bottom of the back of the handle is a small notch. It might look slightly odd and out of place, but lye the brush flat and this stops it rolling about.

The sides of the handle are smooth to the touch, bar the small embossed ‘Professional Care’ wording on each side.

What is quite obvious is the red panel on the back of the brush handle. Positioned at the neck, just below the attachment point for the brush head, this is the visible pressure sensor, that lights up red when activated.

I will explain how it works in more detail shortly, but the panel does taper from the back of the handle into the sides just a little.

The handle will stand upright on a flat surface, despite having a recess in the bottom into which the protuberance (prong) on the charging stand fits.

Sealed inside the brush handle is the rechargeable battery, the brush motor and other electronics.

At the top of the handle extends a metal shaft that is connected to the motor. It is to this that the brush heads attach.

The Junior Smart comes supplied with a single Sensi UltraThin brush head.

You simply push this head onto the brush handle and pull it off again when you want to remove it.

It clips into place quite securely. You can quite easily tell when it is fitted correctly. There is no need to twist or lock it in place.

This brush head is just 1 of a range of different styles of brush heads offered by the company, but for kids it is ideal thanks to the super soft bristles.

You can select a different style of head from the range if you prefer, but for the more delicate teeth and gums of your child, it is best to stick to a soft bristled head.

All of the Oral-B heads are interchangeable and work on any of the cleaning modes the brush offers.

On average, the brush head should be used for 3 months before being replaced.

If the head becomes damaged or worn sooner, it should be replaced as it could otherwise be damaging the teeth and gums.

I hardly doubt your child will ask for a new brush head, so checking when a new one is due falls on your shoulders as the parent. The good news is there are a couple of things that can help you out.

The first is within the app, there is the facility to set a reminder. Essentially you can set the date you fitted the head and the app will throw up an alert when it is due to be changed.

The bristles on the brush head themselves fade also.

The blue tips of the bristles over a 3 month period will gradually fade. As they become more translucent and the blue colouring fades away, this is another visual reminder to you that it is time to swap the head.

One of the things that wears brush heads out sooner than 3 months is excess pressure being applied to the teeth.

Bristles of the brush essentially need only skim the tooth surface to clean away debris and plaque. This then is where the pressure sensor comes in.

Should the brush detect that too much pressure is being applied to the teeth as it is in operation, a number of things will happen.

Firstly, the red light on the back of the handle will light up. The movement of the brush head will slow down and one dimension of that cleaning action, the pulsations, stop altogether. If the app is being used at this time, a message saying reduce pressure will also be displayed.

Once the pressure is relieved, the light will go out, the brush head will speed up again and normal brushing is resumed.

This pressure sensor is very helpful in getting kids to understand brushing pressure, as the light is engaging and a clear visual stimulus to what is right and wrong.

The pressure sensor works on all brushing/cleaning modes available on this brush.

The Oral-B Junior has 3 brushing modes. They are:

• Daily Clean
• Sensitive
• Whitening

The names pretty much explain what they are designed for.

I personally don’t think that children aged 6+ really need additional modes, just the standard daily clean is enough.

However, Sensitive is a slower and more gentle mode, so this can be better for those children who may find the brushing power a little too much, so I will cut Oral-B some slack here.

But the whitening mode really is redundant in my opinion.

Any toothbrush used correctly can whiten teeth, by removing stains that exist on the outside surfaces of the teeth. A specific whitening mode is going to make little different. It will not change the natural colour of the teeth. Whilst it is good to ensure staining is being removed from the teeth, does the very presence of this mode reinforce the theory that we must have bright white teeth?

To activate each cleaning mode, you have to use the power button on the front of the brush.

Remember the list above, this is the order of the cleaning modes.

Press the power button once to turn it on. Daily Clean mode will launch.

Press it again to change the mode to Sensitive

Press it a third time to activate Whitening mode.

A fourth time will turn the brush off.

You can press and hold the button for 2 seconds at any point to power it off.

This makes sense, but there are 2 issues in particular that I have with the way in which this has been configured.

The first is that to change to any of the cleaning modes, you first have to power the brush on, you can’t change the mode before turning the brush on. And the second is you need to remember the order. There are no icons of ways to make things clear which mode is selected.

Now, being transparent, it will show you in the app if you have that running at the same time, but something on the handle would be nice.

The brush does also remember the cleaning mode last used, if a full 2 minute cleaning cycle is completed. So, if the sensitive mode is used and the cycle is completed, it will default to this mode the next time the brush is switched on.

A small point to note is that this brush does not automatically power itself off at the end of the 2 minute cleaning cycle, like some other brushes do.

Despite my comments about the modes and the way you control them, the cleaning action of the Oral-B toothbrush is excellent.

Clinically proven to be very effective, although the Junior actually has an adult brush head supplied, the small round shape makes it perfectly easy for most kids (and parents) to move this around the mouth, reaching all the teeth, front, back and biting surfaces also.

It can take some getting used to as it is quite different to a manual toothbrush, but after a week or so most have gotten used to the power and sensation.

You can’t change the amount of power other than selecting a different cleaning mode, for example,, the Sensitive mode.

As a parent, you might be aware, but if your child has only ever used a manual brush, the technique to use an electric brush is different.

I suggest you familiarise yourself with how to brush with an electric toothbrush, so you and your children can achieve the best oral care standards.

Now, I expect you know first hand of the struggles that can ensue with getting your child to brush their teeth at all, let alone properly.

This is where a few features really start to show their worth.

These features are the 2 minute timer, quadpacer and the smartphone app.

Most cleaning modes on this brush run for 2 minutes.

If you did not already know, this is the globally recommended brushing time. 2 minutes, twice a day.

2 minutes to a child might apparently be a lifetime, but the Junior Smart has a couple of tricks to help them keep brushing for this long.

The first is the 2 minute timer itself. Once the 2 minutes are up 3 brief pauses in the brush motor will be heard and felt, so you can get your child to listen out for this and then they know not to stop brushing before this happens.

But there is also the a quadpacer, also known as a professional timer built-in, that kicks in at 30 second intervals.

Imagine the mouth broken up into 4 sections. Upper right, upper left, lower right and lower left.

The principle is that we humans should spend 30 seconds cleaning each section. The pacer helps keep an even brushing time on these 4 sections.

At 30 second intervals the brush will provide an audible warning via a slight pause in the brush motor that acts as a sign to change quadrant.

Now, if your child uses the app this can help even more so than the built-in timer, because there are more visuals to go with it.

Essentially, the app points to the section of the mouth requiring cleaning at that time.

The Bluetooth keeps everything happening in real-time.

Now, Oral-B have 2 apps. There is the standard Oral-B app for Android and iOS which all of their Bluetooth connected brushes work with. And there is also their FunZone app.

As the name implies it is more interactive and ‘gamifies’ the brushing experience, perfect for kids.

Whilst either app can be used, the FunZone app will deliver the best results for kids, I do believe.

Depending on the age of the child may depend on whether they have their own mobile device, but for now I will surmise they are using your mobile phone.

It takes just a couple of moments to get the app installed and setup, it is really easy.

You do have to give certain permissions to the app to allow it to function to its full potential, including access you use your front facing camera.

In principle the idea is the phone is in front of the children as they brush. The camera puts them into an onscreen experience and even records a little video of them brushing.

As it does this, the timer is functioning and graphics come up on screen to show them where to brush.

Points are awarded for achieving certain goals, like brushing for the right time etc.

Over the days and weeks, the points add up to unlock new on screen experiences and rewards. Brushing streaks can be unlocked giving what I can only describe as virtual stickers that are shown within the app.

The app will provide advice and tips to help the child (or adult) brush better and know how they can improve.

As each brushing session is completed it is logged within the app so a record of brushing sessions are recorded.

This could potentially be useful to you as an adult to see if your child did brush and for how long, but you can potentially use it with the dentist also.

The app is kept fairly simple, so as not to over complicate the usage.

I do like what Oral-B have done here.

Please be aware that whilst the toothbrush and smartphone communicate, this brush is unable to track the exact position in the mouth, so the data is only a guide only. Unless supervising your child you will not know precisely how well they have cleaned each area of their mouth.

As a parent myself I don’t necessarily like my child being in front of a screen, but I do see the implementation as educational.

You don’t have to make use of the app, but failing to do so would mean you are not getting value from this toothbrush.

The brush handle will retain up to 30 days brushing data, so if the phone is not available during brushing sessions, the data will be transferred to the app, the next time it connects. Please note, this functionality works best with the standard Oral-B app. The Fun Zone app seems inconsistent and in my testing logged only data recorded in real-time as I used the app.

There is no charge for the app, and there are no in app purchases.

You do have to have an Android or iOS mobile device with Bluetooth 4.0 or above (most newer phones fall into this category).

It would be useful if Oral-B provided a stand in the box to mount the smartphone in or on, so the child or you as the parent doesn’t have to hold the phone the whole time. But, the different bathroom setups, heights of kids etc can make it difficult to position it correctly, so maybe in hand use is best.

Built into the brush handle is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. This should give 16 days of usage, based on 2 cleans per day, each lasting 2 minutes.

You don’t get lots of battery feedback. It does not in the smartphone app, for example, show precisely how much power remains. That said when the power is low the battery icon on the front of the handle will flash red, warning you that a recharge is ideally required.

No travel case or brush head storage option is provided in the box.

You do have the charging stand that the brush can sit on when not in use.

Oral-B offer a 2 year warranty as standard, which can be extended to 3 years, at no cost if you register the brush.