When it comes to the best portable toothbrush that one can find, choices vary A LOT. From disposable items to nearly Sci-Fi models that have you brush your teeth while grinning at your… smartphone, it can all leave you open-mouthed. You might be tempted to skip making this choice because, as they say, you don’t have to brush all your teeth all the time, only the ones you want to keep…
But if you do want to keep your teeth and have a gorgeous smile in all your travel photos, how do you choose the best travel toothbrush from all those many different models?
You Play It Simple. Practical. Hygienic. And If There’s Extra Room For Technology, So Be It!
The right toothbrush for your travel style and personal needs can be either electric or manual. All it takes is a good quality toothbrush that:
Everything else is a matter of preference. Coming up next, we’ve rounded up 8 of the most popular models currently on the market, backed up by Philips, Oral-B and, of course, Colgate. From the best travel electric toothbrush to the best manual toothbrush, one of them will be the one for the many travels ahead of you.
Here’s our TOP 8 – Best Portable Toothbrush Selection!
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Not brushing your teeth is pretty much like smoking. Everybody tells you it’s bad for your health but you don’t believe it until you start experiencing all those problems. What could possibly go wrong if you go easy on brushing your teeth while traveling?
Let’s just say that, as much as you enjoy traveling, you won’t enjoy dental tourism…
That’s right, dental care can be painfully expensive and the number of people who flock to other countries searching for more affordable dentistry work is poised to soar. Go ahead and invest in the best portable electric toothbrush out there or even the best manual model and save money for more pleasurable activities.
Now that you hopefully agree with me, let’s see what bumps you could get on this road of finding the best portable toothbrush. We have a feeling that there are at least 3 questions in your mind, right now:
1. The Common Dilemma – Best Travel Electric Toothbrush vs Best Manual Toothbrush?
It’s not just that they look, feel and work completely different, but they also come with significant price differences. Many people are not sure if they should invest more in a battery powered travel toothbrush or settle for the best manual toothbrush. If you ask us, taking good care of your teeth comes down to brushing the right way. Unless you’re sloppy, this can be done with a manual model almost as easily as you do with an electric model.
The choice is, whether you like it or not, a personal option. Without giving an absolute answer to this question, we’d like to underline the ups and downs:
With an electric toothbrush carry on model, you can:
With a manual toothbrush carry on model, you:
2. Does It Really Have To Be A Folding Travel Toothbrush?
This is another common criterion that people use when selecting the best travel toothbrush. The reason would relate to portability because, as a travel accessory, your toothbrush has to take up as little space as possible. To answer your question, no, it doesn’t really have to be a foldable model. Yet if it is, it could be better for you.
Once you’ll go through our best portable toothbrush selection, you’ll notice that some folding models come with a special, double-function mechanism. More precisely, half of the brush, which normally acts as a handle when you keep it unfolded, will cover the brush and its bristles as a protective cap, once you fold it.
If you’re into versatile and smart designs, this double function might please you. Then again, 5 inches instead of 10 inches might not make a huge difference to your luggage. Moreover, a simple cap could make up for the lack of a folding design and cost you significantly less. Of course, this question would rather apply to the best manual toothbrush because electric models normally come with their own case.3. So, What, Now You Have To Look For The Best Toothbrush Travel Case?
Ideally no, because just like we mentioned, your travel toothbrush kit should have a case included! So, this question isn’t necessarily about having to purchase a separate case but rather about the importance of having a case or a cap. If you recall the beginning of our review, hygiene is of the essence, especially because you’re traveling and you’ll have to keep such personal items in places that were cleaned up by other people.
When you don’t have much control over the environment, you need control over your belongings. With the right protective cap, with air holes and a tight closing mechanism, your best travel toothbrush will dry out easily. That way, you can be sure that bacteria will not give a party on your brushes’ bristles. Plus, you won’t have to walk around with messy brushes in plastic bags.
Now, do we need to say more or we can move on to the compact, ergonomic, and catchy models we’ve picked up to recommend you?
The Philips Sonicare 3 Series is our recommended choice as a battery powered travel toothbrush. It’s not just a simple brush, but rather a kit containing:
The brush itself weighs as little as 1 pound and measures 1.7 x 1.7 x 7.3 inches. It packs an upgraded Li-Ion battery that can last up to 3 weeks and it works at 110-240 Volts. Add to all these the famous sonic technology with up to 31,000 brush strokes per minute… And you have one of the best portable electric toothbrush models out there!
This Philips Sonicare 3 Series also has a smart and ergonomic design with extra smart features. The easy-to-grip texture will leave you with only one power button, from where you can switch through the 3 main intensity levels. The head should simply snap-on to the body, while its blue reminder bristles will let you know as soon as you have to replace the brush head. As far as the features are concerned, this travel battery toothbrush has 2 timers that will beep throughout the brushing cycle:
Your search for the best travel electric toothbrush with case might as well end up right here…
Pros
Cons
To see the Philips Sonicare 3 Series live in action, watch this video:
The next best travel toothbrush we could find is this Oral-B Deep Sweep Toothbrush, from Philips’ main competitor. Yet another travel battery toothbrush, but at approximately half the price of the Philips Sonicare 3 Series, this one is lighter – only 12.8 ounces – and somehow a tad bulkier: 4.4 x 2.2 x 10 inches. The kit includes the handle, the charger, and the brush head, a Deep Sweep brush with triple cleaning action:
The Oral-B Deep Sweep Toothbrush may seem quite similar to the Sonicare battery powered travel toothbrush, with a few differences. While it also has an in-handle timer that guides you on brushing for 2 whole minutes, it features only one intensity mode. And the rechargeable battery, when used for 2 minutes, twice a day, will last around one week. As a novelty, it comes with this fancy pressure sensor that lights up whenever you tend to overbrush, telling you to put less pressure on your teeth!
Pros
Cons
To see the Oral-B Deep Sweep Toothbrush live in action, watch this video:
With the GUM On-the-Go, we step aside from the above electric toothbrush carry on models. This is, however, one of the best manual toothbrush options we could find, falling within a very tempting price range, and with two essential benefits: it’s a folding travel toothbrush with a double-function, tri-fold design. Long story short, the brush folds and unfolds, with the cap serving both as a handle – when you brush your teeth – and as a travel case – when you’re done and you want to pack it.
This GUM On-the-Go will give you both the convenience of compact packing and the ease of mind that your toothbrush is kept hygienic and your backpack clean. Another great plus of this best portable toothbrush is the patented antibacterial agent of its bristles. The brush head is coated with special bristles that don’t just clean deep between your teeth, but that also inhibit the growth of germs while you’re not using it!
Pros
Cons
Back to one of the best travel electric toothbrush options, we have this Oral-B Genius Pro 8000. Another kit from Oral-B, this battery powered travel toothbrush will take you to a completely new level! For starters, the kit includes the handle and the charger, 3 special brush heads, a refill stand, and a travel case with a smartphone holder. It weighs a little over 13 ounces and the Lithium-Ion battery should hold up for 12 days, all of which are making it seem slightly superior to the previous Oral-B Deep Sweep Toothbrush.
Nevertheless, Oral-B Genius Pro 8000 comes with so many smart features (and a price that will give you some shivers) that we thought it isn’t necessarily superior when it comes to the best portable electric toothbrush. Sure, you need to brush your teeth, wherever you go, but you may not need all these super-fancy features like…
Now, if you don’t mind having to read a manual just to learn how to make the best of this travel electric toothbrush with case, check out what we liked and what could be improved about it…
Pros
Cons
To see the Oral-B Genius Pro 8000 live in action, watch this video:
This Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart Electric model is keeping the competition tight with Oral-B, bringing in the second Philips travel battery toothbrush in our top. Much like the above Oral-B Genius Pro 8000, this one throws in a lot of goodies right from the starting package: the smart handle and 3 brush heads (for plaque control, gum care, and teeth whitening), the glass charger and a premium travel case with Bluetooth charging. To top it off, it works with a free app for iOS and Android, ready to personally instruct you on brushing your teeth, and its battery should last 14 days of two daily brushing sessions.
Pros
Cons
To see the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart Electric live in action, watch this video:
Colgate Wisp Max Fresh Portable brings in yet another famous toothbrush brand, next to Philips and Oral-B. As you would expect, this model, just like the two others remaining in our best travel toothbrush selection, is a manual toothbrush. We thought you might be looking for some super-simple alternatives as well and this is one of the best we could find: a set of 32 mini-brushes in 4 packs, readily flavored with peppermint, designed for single-use and throw away.
Basically, you remove a Colgate Wisp Max Fresh Portable from its package, use it right away, without any water and without having to rinse in any way, and you throw it away when you’re done. Simple, clean, disposable mini-brushes that will give you a way out in any situation – what else could you want from your best portable toothbrush than such a disposable option?
Pros
Cons
To see the Colgate Wisp Max Fresh Portable live in action, watch this video:
With this 0.2 ounces and 9.4 inches Colgate Value Travel Toothbrush you’ll have a hard time finding a more compact folding travel toothbrush! A great, small, and handy portable brush, with a special cover ready to act as your best toothbrush travel case, you can stop worrying and start smiling.
The Colgate Value Travel Toothbrush comes as a 6 pack in various colors, each of them with two levels of medium-hard bristles, easy-to-carry foldable format, and dedicated cover for the bristles. The handle/case is designed with small holes that let it dry out reasonably well between uses and the overall design will resemble with the one of the GUM On-the-Go. If you need more reasons for considering it a best manual toothbrush, check the pros but don’t ignore the cons either…
Pros
Cons
You might mistake this Colgate Wisp Portable Mini-Brush for the previous Colgate Wisp Max Fresh Portable yet, at a closer look, you’ll notice it’s a different deal. The same Colgate single-use mini toothbrush, but this time available in a smaller package of 16 brushes, with three flavors – Peppermint, Spearmint, and Cinnamint. The price per disposable brush is even more convenient and, if you don’t enjoy carrying a ton of brushes with you, a smaller batch like this one might serve you well.
The Colgate Wisp Portable Mini-Brush comes in a slim shell package. And while it has 4 brushes in a pack, each one is individually sealed and easy to unseal. If you count the fact that one brush has about 3.5 inches, which is approximately as much as the keys in your pocket, you’ll see what it means pocket-sized.
Pros
Cons
To see the Colgate Wisp Portable Mini-Brush live in action, watch this video: