Whites Beaconsfield Wiggle Review

Design, usability, clean & general use

There is absolutely no denying that the White Children’s Electric Toothbrush, appropriately named “Wiggle” captures the eye and the heart to some extent.

The box is bold with a red and white colour scheme that extends to the physical product itself.  

There is clearly a playful theme going on with #keepsmiling printed on the inside lid of the box.

The box clearly tells you what it is and what it is designed to do.

All the items are positioned within a plastic tray inside the presentation style box.

The toothbrush itself is essentially made up of 2 parts.  You have the handle/handpiece and then you have the bristles or brush head or mouthpiece, whatever you wish to call it.

The bristles attach to and from the handle in a similar fashion to a regular electric toothbrush, the main difference being the shape of both.

The bristles are of a U shape and the handpiece is shaped very much like an actual strawberry.  

The handpiece isn’t flat, it is bulbous on the main front and back sides.  It is wider and thicker at the top and slims a bit towards the base.

On the base are 2 silver dots that align with the magnets on the provided charging stand. These transfer the charge into the battery built inside.

The Wiggle toothbrush doesn’t stand upright on a worktop.  You would need to place it in the charging stand for this.

The whole handle is covered with this red silicone cover.  On the front is a smiley strawberry face design with big eyes, a nose that doubles as a power button and a mouth.

The back of the handpiece is all red in colour.

You can remove the cover if you want for cleaning.  You will reveal the gloss white plastic body of the toothbrush underneath. It is a bit awkward to refit.

The cover gives it a very distinctive look but also makes it feel more grippy in hand, which is good.

Compared to similar products the handpiece shape is a bit more unusual. What I can’t get away from is the theme certainly appeals and gives that fun element.

Even as an adult I quite like the playful nature. I have to give credit here.

The handpiece is said to be waterproof up to a depth of 2 meters.  I haven’t verified this and I see little need to do so. I gave it a few good rinses under the tap without issue. 

I presume this waterproof design is so your kids can safely use it whilst in the bath etc. Although I am not sure if this is something you want to promote to them?!

Extending from the top centre of the handpiece is the shaft onto which the brush heads fit.

When pushed on they mount very securely and are by no means loose. In fact, it’s quite hard to removed. This is great.

The silicone mouthpieces have a U shaped design with bristles on either side.  The idea is that when in the mouth it cleans the teeth of both the upper and lower jaw at the same time.

It helps position the bristles at the ideal angle to get a more effective clean more of the time.

Children and adults alike struggle with applying the correct brushing technique.  The fixed position of the bristles takes this challenge away from the user.

Included in the box are 2 different sized sets of bristles.  1 x small and 1 x large.  Nothing on the website or even the box suggests 2 different sizes.

There is no suggestion what age the child should be to use each brush head either.

It is important to find the one that fits your child best, it isn’t an exact science, but some sort of guidance would be good.  The box says this is for children 2+.

My child is 4 and used the smaller brush head.  I would have suggested the larger one would suit children who have begun to get their adult teeth through, so 6 years onwards.

The large certainly isn’t suitable for adults.

When ordering replacements, you simply select small or large.

The silicone is gentle on the teeth and the soft tissues in the mouth.  This is a positive, but unfortunately, it means the mouthpiece is very flexible and the bristles don’t achieve the deep and thorough clean they need to.  More on this shortly.

Due to the unique design of the mouthpiece, you need to preferably make use of the special foam style toothpaste Whites of Beaconsfield offer.  A tube is included in the box.

The foamed toothpaste spreads with more ease and helps ensure better coverage of the teeth.  You need to apply it to both the top and the bottom of the mouthpiece each time it is used.

You can use regular toothpaste, but I have found it gets stuck inside the mouthpiece and you spend a lot of time cleaning it out of the bristles.  It then doesn’t spread over the teeth anywhere near as effectively.

Because this is a special type of paste, you don’t find this on the shelf of your local supermarket.

At £5 a time it is also more expensive than most typical toothpaste you would buy for a child by about £3 per tube.

I can’t say for sure, as I wasn’t going to use this on my child for such an extended period, but I anticipate about 1 month’s worth of foam in each tube.

Compare this to a regular tube of toothpaste that will last about 3 months and you could well be spending considerably more on toothpaste alone.

As a very rough calculation, £15 on paste for Wiggle compared to £2 for a regular toothbrush.  Even if this price was £5 less, it is still a reasonable premium to pay.

Then we have the ingredients of the toothpaste itself.

It has a strawberry/bubblegum flavour.  It is very sweet tasting and I think it is safe to say many kids will like it.

This foam toothpaste is fluoride free.  

Most dental professionals advocate the use of fluoridated toothpaste for children to help protect their teeth, thus they wouldn’t necessarily approve.  

This isn’t the time for a debate on the pros and cons, but it does have Hydroxiapetite.  

This is essentially a more modern alternative to fluoride.  It is an ingredient more and more dental professionals are recognising and promoting as an acceptable alternative.

The problem is that the product I received doesn’t appear to have this in it.  It isn’t listed on the ingredients.

I don’t have a record of exactly what the website said at the time of purchase, but I don’t recall seeing mentions of Hydroxyapatite. 

It is possible that the website and the toothpaste foam have been updated in the few weeks since I bought it, and does now include it.  I just can’t personally say I have hard evidence of this.

There is no mention of it on the tube I have and then the dedicated page for the toothpaste on Whites website makes no mention of it and the images don’t promote its inclusion either. 

Aside from the cleaning results, there are 2 real other flaws and frustrations I have with this product.  They are the cleaning modes and the timer.

This brush offers 3 cleaning modes.

What they are exactly is a mystery.  This is because nothing is mentioned about the 3 modes, anywhere.

I suspect they are as follows:

• Normal/Clean
• Sensitive
• Massage

The first mode is the most powerful.  

The second is potentially slightly more gentle than the normal mode, but I struggle to notice any meaningful difference.

The third mode is massage as it pulses, with weaker and stronger vibrations.

1 press of the nose of the strawberry turns the brush one, a second changes it to the next mode and a third press changes to the massage mode.

Allow the brush to automatically power off a the end of a cleaning mode and it will default to the mode last used when you next turn it on which is handy.

All 3 modes last for 45 seconds and turn the brush off automatically at the end of the brushing cycle.

So then to my big frustration, the timer and the recommendations Whites give.

They suggest brushing with this for 2-3 minutes.  Great, this is in line with what dental professionals recommend.

However, mouthpiece style toothbrushes like this have been promoted by many as a quicker way to brush the teeth.  This is because they brush 3 surfaces of the teeth at the same time rather than just one compared to a regular toothbrush.  

I won’t get into all the maths now, but in theory, at least you can brush for around a third of the time you would. This has been one of the selling points and appeals of the mouthpiece style toothbrush, hence the cleaning modes last 45 seconds.

I like how Whites are promoting the recommended brushing time, but this product is not geared this way.  

There is no way to have the brush operational for 2-3 minutes aside from turning the brush on again a further 2-3 times.

I can’t see many kids starting the brushing cycle 3 times over to achieve in excess of 2 minutes brushing each time, can you?

Why configure the product this way?  

Yes, most parents are supervising toothbrushing and potentially even doing it for the child.  But, from a parent’s perspective making sure you repeat the cycle is frustrating.  It is relatively easy to lose track of whether it has been 2 or 3 cycles.

At some point, the child needs to become independent and for those who are of that age, it then falls back to the parent to monitor if they are brushing for this time, if it is only 45 seconds by default.

By no means is a 2 minute timer and pacer the ultimate solution, at least if the brush continues for 2 minutes as standard it encourages the recommended brushing time to the child.

Right then the cleaning results.

Simply put they are not good enough.  But, to be totally honest, the results were much better than I anticipated.

The vast majority of the plaque was removed.

Here is a before and after image of my sons teeth.  This is with 2 minutes of brushing.

Please excuse the slightly blurry after photo. I am too aware that my son isn’t showing all his teeth properly.  Unfortunately after lots of testing, cooperation can be a challenge!  Real life folks!

The purple stuff on the teeth is a plaque disclosing solution.  Plaque is a substance that needs to be broken up and removed to clean the teeth.  It is really the main reason we brush our own teeth as well as those of our children.

Note all the purple along the gumline on the bottom left row of teeth.  

Not cleaning this away one day isn’t the end of the world, but isn’t ideal.  The problem is repeatedly not brushing this away.  It will lead to problems.

You can’t see it in the pictures, but this was consistent on the lower right side of the mouth.  

The upper row of teeth were cleaned better and only very limited plaque remained at the gumline.  I don’t think my approach with brushing had a part to play here, but maybe it did.  I tried my level best.

The silicone bristles don’t reach the gumline and between the teeth well enough to achieve results close to this becoming a replacement to a manual or electric brush with nylon bristles.

I think had the mouthpiece had nylon bristles, the results could have been even better.  I have seen evidence of this with other adult mouthpiece toothbrushes.

Admittedly some could be removed with flossing (none done here) but I know from experience that a manual or electric would have removed quite a bit more.

And flossing a childs teeth is a whole new challenge.

Arguably, the longer you spend brushing with this the better the results, to a point.  But my own testing would suggest brushing with this for 2 minutes doesn’t produce any significant improvements over 45 seconds to 1 minute of brushing.

Just look below, this result was after 45 seconds.  This picture was taken during the same brushing session as the one above.  You will see the results from extra brushing was only marginally better.

I am not suggesting brush just for 45 seconds instead of 2 minutes, but you get my point.

I would like such products to be effective.  I think the teeth can be brushed in less time and these products can do some of the hard work for us.

If this was effective like a regular toothbrush, brushing each tooth surface for 2 minutes would actually be considered over brushing though.  Thankfully we don’t need to worry about this just yet.

There is no real manual included in the box.  A small flyer with limited guidance on how to use it.

To be fair, the included guide says ‘insert mouthpiece, brush gently side to side & wiggle for 2-3 minutes.’

Potentially it is self explanatory, but given it is is so different to a regular toothbrush that most are used to, you would think a few more words and maybe visual advice on how to use the product would be welcomed by most.

Similar products advise moving the toothbrush side to side or moving it in circular motions or biting into the mouthpiece etc as you brush.  

With my son, I tried several different approaches, none of which seemed to really move the needle in terms of cleaning results.

Best was a combination of chewing and side to side movement with some rotation too.  However, this needed my guidance and holding of the handpiece.  Few younger children are ever going to manage this.

The side to side motion seems a fair balance in getting some plaque removal but also keeping it relatively easy for the child to use.

When powered on, there are 2 green LED lights that get lit.  There is 1 either side of the shaft onto which the mouthpiece fits.  

The lights are on top of the handpiece and shine in the direction of the teeth.

Whites don’t suggest these do anything.  Similar adults products have lights in this location too.  Normally of different colours.  They often claim to do something, in reality, they don’t.    

I did feel like it was some sort of nod to the green leaves you might otherwise have on the top of a strawberry.

I don’t think it is a big issue for many, but there is no travel case or pouch option for this.  So if your kid is staying overnight somewhere you will need to pop this in a bag or something to protect it and avoid accidental activation.

So overall, like many other products of this type, conceptually it is a good idea, but in reality, it doesn’t live up to the expectations and standards required.