We Tried 10 of the Best Toothbrushes for Kids — Here’s Our Very Favorite One (2024)

published Aug 21, 2021

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Like a lot of young children, my 5-year-old, Louisa, doesn’t do well at the dentist’s office when the electric brush comes out. Last time we were in for a visit, our wonderful, patient dentist recommended getting her started with an electric brush at home to make things less scary when she comes in for a cleaning. I picked up a few cheapies here and there to try, hoping the cartoon characters on the brush would be enough to entice her, but she didn’t want anything to do with them because they were all very loud — which can be pretty scary to young kids.

Hoping to find the perfect option, we tested out 10 of the top-performing brushes out there for kids, including manual brushes, because we like sending one of those with her to school.

Here were our picks!

Electric or Manual: Electric

When to replace brush heads: every three months

Charger or battery powered: Charger

What Louisa Thinks: First and foremost, the AutoBrush looks like a toy. I can tell she likes it because it’s a completely different toothbrushing experience. She actually listens to the music while brushing, and I think she’s okay with the noise level because the sound quality is good — it doesn’t sound like it’s being played from a tin can, like most kids’ products.

What I Think: The thing I like most about this brush is that it’s not intimidating in any way. The sound is a very quiet vibration, and you can choose to turn the music off, so all you hear is a soothing “hum”, as opposed to a loud “buzz” from a traditional rotating brush. The mouthpiece brush head isn’t made from traditional nylon bristles, instead it’s soft silicone, which is safe for gums and super easy to clean. We tried this toothbrush first, and I’ve seen how it’s helped make her so much more comfortable with the buzzing and humming of an electric brush that can sometimes be jarring to little ones.

Electric or Manual: Electric

When to replace brush heads: every three months

Charger or battery powered: Charger

What Louisa Thinks: She was excited at first to use what she referred to as the “tooth hero” brush (the package had a picture of a tooth character, mid-flight, wearing a superhero cape) but once we opened the box she was disappointed to find it was just a normal brush. There wasn’t anything extra to make the tedious experience fun. Also, the brush had rotating bristles, so it was louder than other brushes we tried.

What I Think: The brush wand is medium-sized, pretty comfortable for tiny hands to hold, but it was just a tiny bit too loud for my kiddo. The nylon bristles are soft, and the head is the perfect size for a kids toothbrush. If the brush was just a bit quieter it would have been a really great pick. I’m going to keep this brush on file for when she gets a bit older and can handle noise better.

Electric or Manual: Electric

When to replace brush heads: every three months

Charger or battery powered: Charger

What Louisa Thinks: The brush comes with eight different sticker choices for the handle, and she really loved being able to customize it. There’s also a Sonicare kids app you can download for interactive brushing, so she had a great time with that!

What I Think: Sonicare is a trusted name in the electric toothbrush game, so I had pretty big expectations. On this particular brush, the nylon bristles are cut at different lengths, so they’re good for getting into tiny spaces between teeth, but again, the brush head is really large and the wand is too long. As for the sound, it’s definitely quieter (vibration, not rotation), and you can choose from two different speeds when brushing. Out of all the brushes we tested, the Sonicare is the biggest, and was the most difficult for my daughter to hold on to.

Electric or Manual: Electric

When to replace brush heads: every three months

Charger or battery powered: Battery

What Louisa Thinks: She was excited to find out that it played music, but it’s actually pretty jarring, so we switched to the voice command. The voice command is a cool feature (it’s basically Siri, giving you directions on where to brush), but she didn’t always understand the voice command. In the end, it wasn’t her favorite and I don’t think she’ll go reaching for it any time soon.

What I Think: I liked that this electric brush had zero-waste packaging, and that the handle of the toothbrush was made from recycled material. The bristles were very soft, but the loudness of the brush (rotation bristles) in combination with the music was too much for even me.

Electric or Manual: Manual

When to replace brush heads: every three months

What Louisa Thinks: She loved being able to choose a color, and she liked that it was made from bamboo. For a manual brush, it’s pretty fun!

What I Think: For $9.99 you’re set for 18 months with biodegradable, compostable and organic charcoal wooden toothbrushes. These brushes are thrifty, don’t require much thought after the initial purchase, and are so much better for the environment than having to toss a plastic brush into the landfill every three months. They’ve very cute, too, and by now you should know we’re suckers for good design!

Electric or Manual: Manual

When to replace: every three months

What Louisa Thinks: She calls it the “giant banana brush,” because we have a yellow one that, well, looks sort of like a banana! The length of the brush fits perfectly in her small hands.

What I Think: I like the ergonomic shape; it’s really perfect for her to hold. I think it would be excellent for a child who has a difficult time gripping things like a pencil or toothbrush. The head of the toothbrush, however, is really big — in fact, it’s bigger than the head on my adult size toothbrush, and I worry that she won’t be able to brush her molars as well as she could with a smaller brush.

Electric or Manual: Electric

When to replace brush heads: every three months

Charger or battery powered: Battery

What Louisa Thinks: Like the AutoBrush, this brush is very quiet so that scored big points with her. She also likes that the brush fits into the sleek little cup that you can stick to your mirror.

What I Think: This is definitely the best bang for your buck. The design is lightweight and super sleek, which makes it so good for traveling. It has a little adhesive strip on the back of the holder that can be stuck and re-stuck to a clean, shiny surface which means you don’t have to take up precious counter space and an outlet to charge the brush. The refills are a piddly little $5 every 3 months, and come with a free battery. And lastly, it does the job — my daughter was able to hold it in her little hand and could easily operate the on-off button.

Electric or Manual: Manual

When to replace: every three months

What Louisa Thinks: Kids love apps (and taking over their parents’ phone) so of course she loved this whole experience! After watching herself brush her teeth via the app and completing the “game,” she got to click and “open” a box to reveal her prize. The prize is usually a filter that goes over their face, so they can then take some fun selfies. Of course, afterwards she thought that her prize (a scuba mask) would be sent to her in the mail, so I had a little explaining to do.

What I Think: I like the concept of this toothbrush for a child who is averse to brushing their teeth and needs some positive reinforcement. To be honest, I don’t have the patience to let my daughter play around with my phone in the bathroom every morning while she plays the toothbrush game and takes selfies on my phone. This was probably one of my least favorite brushes, just for the parent-convenience factor.

Electric or Manual: Electric

When to replace: every three months

Charger or battery powered: Battery

What Louisa Thinks: It was pretty loud and high-powered. She kept saying it tickled her gums too much.

What I Thought: The suction cup at the bottom of the brush was a nice touch, as was the protective cover, but other than that,the actual brush wasn’t that impressive. It’s a good replacement if you’re traveling and forgot your child’s toothbrush and want to stick with electric, or if you want to buy a brush to keep at school or a relative’s house.

Electric or Manual: Electric

When to replace: every three months

Charger or battery powered: Battery

What Louisa Thinks: I handed this one to her and she wasn’t able to press the button hard enough to get it to turn on — so she handed it back to me and immediately said she didn’t want to use it.

What I Think: I definitely didn’t like the fact that it took an adult to get the brush to turn on — we’re well past the stage of my having to be in the bathroom while Louisa brushes her teeth, so this would have been a step backwards for us. The bristles on the brush are pretty stiff compared to others that we tried, and the fact that you have to discard the entire brush after three months is a bummer. Again, this brush could be good in a pinch if you’re on vacation and forgot your kids’ electric toothbrush — but otherwise it’s not a contender, in our opinion.

So which model did we decide on?

We love the AutoBrush for now, but I foresee us switching to the quip as she gets a bit older. Both have bristles that work by vibration, rather than complete rotation. While I can definitely see the benefits of both brushes, I know Louisa’s ears aren’t quite ready for that noise level. As for the manual brush: we are set on the Greenzla Kids bamboo brushes — they’re eco-friendly, and you can’t go wrong with the price!