Ultrasonex toothbrush

[Mark]

Sorry if this is OT but there's some knowledgable peeps in the group who might be able to help.

I got a Ultrasonex toothbrush for Christmas which has 3 settings. Sonic high frequency 300Hz, low frequency 150Hz and Ultrasonic 1.6MHz. It works fine on the Sonic high & low frequency settings but when I switch to Ultrasonic 1.6MHz the green light comes on to indicate that the Ultrasonic vibration is working but I can feel no vibration and hear no noise from the toothbrush whatsoever. Is it normal to not feel or hear anything from Ultrasonic or could my new toothbrush be faulty? Thanks.

[Soup]

Know two things about "Ultrasonex" toothbrushes nowt and bu***all, but would you be able to detect 1.6 million vibrations a second

[The Question Asker]

[Hywel Jenkins]

Is it set up so that it only runs at the 1.6mHz after so many weeks? IIRC my Sonicare had a "training mode" that made the brush run slower for the first 21 days' brushing.

[Steve]

If its 1.6 Mhz, its 80 times higher in frequency than the human ear can hear or feel.

Steve

[mike ring]

"Mark" wrote in news:bskdha$duq1t$ [e-mail]:

Are you sure about that 1.6 Megahertz - it's up in the radio frequencies, top of the medium wave heading into the short wave?

Anyhow I've been descaled with an ultrasonic probe which the dentist assured me was nicer than the hardened steel hook.

I'm not so sure, it was like having a TV linebase whistle injected into me gums! But I could only feel it when it was pressed really hard into a sensitive area, the way dentists like to do.

You will certainly not feel it as vibration, or hear it.

But I would have called ultrasonic in the 20 to 50 or so kilohertz area.

mike r

[Gordon Henderson]

We have a pair of these. Very good they appear to be too. All I can say is Read The Fine Manual ;-)

You can't hear or feel the 1.6MHz mode, thats why you get the green light. BTW, you get the 1.6MHz on the 2 other settings too. It's supposed to help kill bacteria that cause the nastiness, etc. Make sure you use a blob of vaseline on the end when you change brushes otherwise the ultrasonic won't propogate to the brush that well.

If you have a bat detector you might be able to hear it, but I've a funny feeling bats only beep in the 100's of KHz range not the low MHz...

The highest frequency you'll hear is in the upper teens (maybe 20 or 21 if you are very young, decreasing as you get older )-:

1.6MHz is one of the common ultrasonic frequencies they use in medical applications - eg. baby heartbeat monitoring or doppler bubble measurement in blood, so the generators aren't that uncommon these days.

Gordon

[Mark]

Thanks for that, It was the ultrasonic setting without the sonic vibrations that confused me. So if I understand correctly, when it's in ultrasonic mode only without vibrations it basically functions as a normal toothbrush but the ultrasonic waves are also penetrating to breakdown all the nastiness and below the gumline?

Must admit though, after only the first go on fast vibrations I could really feel that squeaky clean feeling you get after a professional cleaning at the dentist.

[BillR]

Mine does make my teeth feel really clean too. Alas though it does not prevent scale build up just as quickly as before. (I've had mine for a few months)

[Woodspoiler]

could

professional

Does it visibly reduce tartar that's already accumulated in awkward places and results in lots of unpleasant poking and scraping at the dentist?

W.

[Gordon Henderson]

I think thats the general idea of it all. We've only had ours a month so it's early days yet. They had them on half-price offer in Boots recently. F'ing expensive for a toothbrush, but I'm fed-up with the cheap battery ones going all rusty inside.

I've found it hard to get used to the full 3 minutes this toothbrush wants you to ise it for (For those who don't have one, this device pulses every 30 seconds to tell you to move to a different part of your mouth, and turns itself off after 3 minutes!)

Indeed! My dentist is particularly insensitve too and really hurts. (So much so that I probably won't go back to him. His loss)

Gordon

[Gordon Henderson]

I think it's helping. Ours came as a kit with a dual-base contactless charager and a 3rd device with a set of tiny brushes intended to poke at those awkward places - fairly gruesome, but at least it's at your own pace rather than someone elses.

Gordon

[BillR]

Not in my experience of several months use.

[mike ring]

"BillR" wrote in news:4dFHb.5963$tQ6.61643 @wards.force9.net:

I was tempted by a half price £9-99 Braun at Superdrug and was very impressed, so was my dentist, on my forst inspection after a few months she commented on the lack of plack without being prompted.

(When I first moved here and signed up with her I found it a bit unsettling to have someone who could be my granddaughter say "Open wide")

mike r

[Rick Hughes]

agreed - but you would get harmonics you would hear, and also feel as vibrations.

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Ahem... harmonics are *multiples* of frequency. 1.6MHz is actually far above ultrasonic ranges which are often 30-80KHz.

The word means "higher than audible by Homosapiens" so not really incorrect, just an unusual useage of the term.

[Mark]

I received this email from the toothbrush makers:

Thank you for your email.

May we advise the information in the leaflet supplied is incorrect.

You can not see or hear the ultrasonic waves, you would need a oscilloscope to measure the ultrasound.

[Chris J Dixon]

So what about sub-harmonics?

Chris