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Last Updated on February 27, 2023
Philips Sonicare 5000 vs 7000 Tooth Brush: Ultimate Comparison

Brushing your teeth is an essential part of life. It keeps your breath fresh, your teeth white, and your mouth healthy. It used to be that we would all use manual toothbrushes, and think that was fine. But these days, it’s all about the electric toothbrush.
Dentists everywhere are recommending them. They make it easier to get to all the hard-to-reach crevices, and they brush so much more effectively than we can manage by hand.
The question is, what should you look for, and which brush should you buy? It is important to look at the brush head as well. I feel if you are looking for a brush with a great brush head, you must 2 series plaque control brush, which has an amazing brush head.
Well don’t worry, we’ve got you covered in this article below. We take a look here at all the different aspects that these toothbrushes have to offer, and explain why you might need them, or not. We explore the reason for a pressure sensor and quadrant timers, whether you should be looking to achieve plaque control, or prioritizing gum health, as well as the importance, and purpose, of different toothbrush settings. A brush head must be a major criterion while choosing a Sonicare toothbrush.
We’ve got it all laid out for you below so that you don’t need to waste your day researching and can instead just go ahead with picking the right brush for you.
Sonicare 5000 vs 7000 At A Glance
Philips Sonicare 5000 electric toothbrush Advantages:
- Cheaper and great battery life.
- 62,000 brush strokes per minute
- Pressure sensor and also comes with a gum care mode, Unlike a manual toothbrush
- Replacement brush heads
- Comes with the diamond clean brush head and a travel case
Philips Sonicare 5000 electric toothbrush Disadvantages:
- Fewer settings
- Fewer color options
- Less variety in brush heads provided
Philips Sonicare 7000 electric toothbrush Advantages:
- 3 intensity settings
- Better for gum care as it comes with a gum care mode.
- Available in a two-pack bundle
- Pressure sensor, great for removing plaque, unlike the manual toothbrush.
- The travel cases are great
Philips Sonicare 7000 electric toothbrush Disadvantages:
- More expensive
- Not Bluetooth capable
- Only two color options available
What’s The Difference Between Them?
Purpose
Both of these electric toothbrushes are an ideal way to take care of your oral health, but each one has a slightly different focus. Whereas the Philip Sonicare 5000 electric toothbrush is aimed at a protective clean, the Philips Sonicare 7000 is designed to improve the care of your gums. How do you know which is the right one for you?
Well, the protective clean purpose of the Sonicare 5000 electric toothbrushes targets the removal of plaque and tartar. Dental plaque is what can make your teeth feel fuzzy. It is a colorless film of bacteria that you can’t really see, but which is damaging for your teeth.
We feel the 5000 is on par with the Oral-b pro electric toothbrushes. When it comes to the brush head in 5000, the brush heads do not have much variety, whereas the brush head of the 7000 is great and there are a variety of brush heads.
The pressure sensor for 5000 and the pressure sensor for 7000 are great as well. These Sonicare toothbrushes are some of the best electric toothbrushes out there that provide great oral care and are perfect for sensitive teeth as well, also the battery life is great as it comes with a lithium-ion battery and is much better than the Sonicare Flexcare platinum. Some users say the battery lasted for three months.
If it is not managed properly, then it absorbs calcium and other minerals and tartar develops. This is a yellow or brown color that makes your teeth look dirty or stained, although it can lead to bigger problems too. The gum care mode for 5000 and the gum care mode for 7000 is also great for your brushing habits.
So if your main problem is that you want to keep them clean, then the Sonicare 5000 would make a good choice for you and much better than the Sonicare, Flexcare platinum.
In contrast, the Sonicare 7000 is designed to really take care of your gums. This might not be something you’ve considered before, or it might be something that your dentist has mentioned to you a few times, but it is really important. We feel this is the best toothbrush with features like visible pressure indicators and multiple cleaning modes.
This toothbrush helps to remove the build-up of plaque along the gum line. If left untreated, this plaque can lead to tooth decay or tooth loss, as well as infections or gum disease.
It often starts as being painless, but gum disease can cause some pretty big problems, from something simple (although unpleasant) like bad breath to something as bad as mouth cancer. If you are looking for a brush for kids, there is also a Sonicare kids brush.
However, the Sonicare 7000 electric toothbrush can help to improve your oral health so that these things shouldn’t become a problem for you. We’ll give you more details below about how it approaches this and how it differs from the Sonicare 5000.
If you are looking to avoid gum recession and a great toothbrush head for plaque removal along the gum line, the 5000 is efficient when compared to manual brushing.
Verdict?
If you’re looking to just clean your teeth, the Sonicare 5000 is a great choice. However, the Sonicare 7000 takes care of this as well as targeting gum health, so for this round, we think that the Sonicare 7000 is the better choice.
Design
Gone are the days where a toothbrush would be a small, brightly-colored stick, with a few bristles on the end. These days the electric toothbrush tends to come with a sturdy, rounded handle in an almost-ubiquitous white, and the Sonicare 5000 and Sonicare 7000 are no exception. We feel the 7000 is on par with the Oral-b pro electric toothbrushes.
The Sonicare 5000 electric toothbrushes have just one color option unlike the oral-b pro, which is white with a light blue panel on the front with the buttons. The Sonicare 7000 also has a white option, but it has a slightly sleeker design with the front panel in a shimmery silver.
The Sonicare 7000 electric toothbrushes also have an option in black, which is great if you are a couple and want to be able to differentiate between your brushes.
However, it is a shame that neither toothbrush has a range of colors available, as families who are looking to purchase a toothbrush for all members will not be able to tell them apart, but otherwise, the design works well.
Both electric toothbrushes have two LED indicators on the front panel. One of the lights is a battery indicator so that you know when it needs to be re-charged.
The other is a handy light to tell you when the toothbrush needs to be replaced. That should help you to keep your teeth in tip-top condition.
Verdict?:
Both the electric toothbrushes are very similar in terms of their designs. However, if we had to choose, we would declare the Sonicare 7000 electric toothbrushes the winner.
Its silver-colored panel helps it to stand out from the crowd a little, and the additional black option means that it is possible to buy two and tell the difference between them. We feel the Sonicare is much better than the oral-b pro.
Timer
Do you always brush for two minutes? That can seem like a tricky question. Who spends their time cleaning their teeth with a stop-watch? Well, both of these toothbrushes offer an in-built, 2-minute timer, and also will let you know if you are brushing too hard going back and forth.
This is an excellent way to make sure that you clean your teeth for enough time. In case you’re wondering whether you really need to brush your teeth for so long, the answer is emphatical yes.
If you don’t clean your teeth for the full two minutes, you’ll struggle to remove all of the plaque and tartar that builds up. The other reason, as told to me by my dentist, is to help protect your teeth.
Most toothpastes contain fluoride, and brushing your teeth for two minutes coats your teeth sufficiently that they are protected for the next twelve hours. So this 2-minutes in-built timer is a pretty good feature to have.
The other great thing about the timers on these two toothbrushes is that they both have in-built quadrant timers. The quadrant timer alerts you at thirty-second intervals.
This means that you can make sure that you are spending an even amount of time on each section of your mouth.
Verdict?:
These two toothbrushes have identical timer settings, each with an inbuilt 2-minutes timer, plus a quadrant timer. So for this round, we are going to have to declare it a draw as both of them come with a recommended two-minutes timer adn also comes with included brush heads.
Settings
When it comes to the different settings of the two toothbrushes, this is where we see the real difference between the Sonicare 5000 and the Sonicare 7000. The Sonicare 5000 has one setting, which is aimed at keeping your teeth nice and clean. It brushes at up to 62,000 brush strokes per minute.
This makes it twice as good as the earlier Sonicare 2 Series model, and considerably more effective than manually brushing your teeth. It also has a pressure sensor built into it, so it flashes red when you are brushing too hard. This is essential for trying to keep your teeth healthy, as so many people brush harder than they should, which actually causes more damage to the teeth and gums.
However, the Sonicare 7000 really outshines its competitor here, as it has three different modes. You can pick between Clean, White, and Gum Care. Clean mode is the standard setting, which works well for a simple clean. The White mode helps to remove surface stains (perfect for after a glass of red wine). Gum Care mode is the one that goes the extra yard to help take care of your oral health.
It is on a reduced-power brush setting so that it reduces the risk of receding gums, but it also adds extra power, to make sure that you clean for long enough. The 3 intensity settings of the low, medium, and high, together with the in-built pressure sensor, meaning that it really caters to all your tooth-brushing needs. Keep in mind the 3 intensity settings are a great feature. It also comes in the 3 series which is great for plaque removal. The 3 series is an entry-level toothbrush that many people use for plaque removal.
Verdict?:
There is no doubt about the winner for this round. The Sonicare 7000 is by far the better option in terms of settings. Sure the Sonicare 5000 has is good, but with just one setting, it can’t compete with the more advanced Sonicare 7000. With three different settings to choose from, the Sonicare 7000 will help you to have a more complete regimen for your oral health.
Price
Although the settings might make the Sonicare 7000 electric toothbrush seem like the obvious choice, there is of course a price difference between the two options which might make more of a difference to your decision. The prices of the toothbrushes tend to vary a little, but the difference between them tends to remain pretty much the same.
The Sonicare 5000 series, as an older model, is considerably cheaper than the Sonicare 7000, which tends to cost around $30-50 more. So you need to have a think about whether the extra features that the Sonicare 7000 offers are worth the extra money. On the one hand, the Sonicare 5000 will do the job, and if it is your first electric toothbrush from a manual one, it has a competitive price and a lot of great features.
However, if you are upgrading your current toothbrush, or if you are concerned about the health of your teeth, and particularly of your gums, then forking out a little more now might save you a lot on dental bills in the future. It really depends on what your main priority is with this.
Verdict?:
The Sonicare 7000 offers a lot of features, but it can’t beat the Sonicare 5000 for price. The Sonicare 5000 is still a great toothbrush, and given that it is so much cheaper, it is definitely the winner of this round.
Extra features
Both the Sonicare 5000 and Sonicare 7000 come with a handy travel case that is sturdy and can carry an extra brush head. It is also possible to interchange the brush heads on these toothbrushes if you have a particular favorite. In terms of the brush heads that the toothbrushes actually come with, the Sonicare 5000 comes with three InterCare Standard brush heads, which are designed for general teeth cleaning.
The Sonicare 7000 comes with two Premium Control brush heads, and one DiamondClean brush head, so you get a little more variety. If you are going for the Sonicare 7000, there is also the option to purchase a 2-pack bundle, which each come in their own case. So if you’re looking to buy for two people, or if you just need two toothbrushes because you know that you tend to lose or break things, this could be a great option for you.
Verdict?:
They both come with three brush heads plus a travel case. But as the Sonicare 7000 offers a variety in its brush heads provided, as well as being available in a two-pack bundle, the Sonicare 7000 is the winner of this round. So when it comes to the brush head it is much better than the Sonicare 2 series plaque control brush head.
Conclusion
Both of these toothbrushes are a big step up from manually cleaning your teeth, and they’ve both got a lot of great features. It is really valuable that they both have an in-built 2-minute timer and quadrant timer, as well as both offering a pressure sensor. The pressure sensor is also an important criterion. Sonicare models also offer a gum care mode and are much better than the Sonicare essence toothbrush.
At 62,000 brush movements per minute, either of these toothbrushes can offer a really thorough clean. However, the difference ultimately comes down to the fact that the Sonicare 5000 only has one setting, whereas the Sonicare 7000 has three settings. We feel these are the best electric brushes out there with an amazing brush head as well.
This allows you to take care of various aspects of your oral hygiene, and particularly to keep your gums healthy. Although the Sonicare 5000 is a cheaper option, if you are looking for the best brush to keep your teeth and gums healthy, the overall winner has to be the Sonicare 7000.
If you want to try a new brand, you can also consider buying Oral B Pro 7500 or 8000 Toothbrushes. They are similarly reliable and effective.
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