When it comes to flossing, I’d be willing to bet that two things are true for just about anyone. One, your dentist urges you to floss more regularly, and so you probably say you’ll get right on that. And two, that you probably don’t actually get right on that.There are huge benefits to flossing daily. We all know this, and yet most of us don’t do it. Maybe it’s because it’s just one more task to toss onto the pile of pre-bedtime rituals when we’re already overwhelmed with a hundred other concerns. Or maybe it’s because your gums bleed when you do floss (that‘ll stop with regular flossing). Or your gums are sensitive. Or it’s tough for you to grip the floss between your fingers. Guess what? Using a water flosser is the perfect way to skirt (and solve!) pretty much all those issues.Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000’s simple controls – Credit: Matt JancerI’ve tested a lot of water flossers. You might know them as Waterpiks, which is a brand name. Waterpiks are good machines, but they’re not the only game in town. When I lined up a bunch for a head-to-head series of tests, the Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 burst ahead of the competition as one of the best cordless models I’ve used.TL;DR – My Quick VerdictUsing the Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 felt good. I already floss every night, but it was always a task. I couldn’t say I ever looked forward to it. It just something I did for the benefits. But when I used the Philips Sonicare, I enjoyed it.The water flosser didn’t just dislodge all the junk that’d accumulate between my teeth over the course of the day. It also left my mouth feeling clean, and I even found myself looking forward to using it. If you never could motivate yourself to push through the (temporary) bleeding gums to become a habitual flosser, using the Cordless Power Flosser 3000 might just make it easier for you to get started and stay consistent.(opens in a new window)PhilipsSonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000(opens in a new window)Available at AmazonBuy Now(opens in a new window)how i testedGone are the days in which I wore braces. I’d have to time travel a couple of decades back to my adolescence. But it’s not like I live on a liquid diet. I still eat all the same crap that sticks in my teeth. Popcorn, roast chicken, everything bagels. And I do have a small tire permanent retainer behind the lower row of front teeth, a relic of an experiment with Invisalign in my early 20s, which tosses a small roadblock to dental hygiene that the water flosser had to overcome.To test the Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000, I didn’t switch up my dietary habits at all, which is to say that I got a lot of junk stuck in my teeth. Normally I floss every night, but I swapped it out for the Philips Sonicare to see how it did in comparison to my usual, low-tech tool of choice.like halo for your mouthThere are three power settings, but pushing one of the only buttons on the clean, simple power layout toggles “Deep Clean” mode, which multiples the available settings to six. Deep Clean pulsates the jet stream to dislodge more plaque and food. Or so Philips says. It worked fine, but so did the regular mode without Deep Clean. I didn’t notice a difference.When I needed to really work out a piece of pulled pork or broccoli (hope you aren’t reading this during lunch), I just held the nozzle closer to my teeth to amplify the power, rather than bothering to toggle Deep Clean. I’m sure a dentist somewhere is cringing, but although powerful enough to dislodge food debris, I never felt like the Philips’ jet stream was so strong as to hurt or make my gums bleed.It actually felt, you know, good? Like a water massage. I’d used a Waterpik back in my youth when I had braces, but I’d forgotten how good a water jet of just the right pressure could feel in my mouth. It wasn’t something to be endured, like flossing. It was something I began to look forward to.Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 – Credit: Matt JancerGo Ahead, Get AttachedThe Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 comes with two attachment heads. There’s a regular one that just shoots water straight, as I expected, and also a “quad stream” head that shoots water in an X-shaped pattern. The idea was that by splitting the water jet into four mini jets it could clean around an entire tooth at once.I couldn’t tell if it worked better at removing food debris and plaque, but it definitely made quicker work of the flossing. It felt like the outward- and inward-facing sides of each tooth was blanketed with more of an all-out blast of water, enrobed in a miniature waterfall.I tended to stick with the standard attachment head for its more targeted jet that did a better job at removing the really stubborn stuff, but I appreciate that Philips included both heads. I was never in that much of a hurry to finish using the water flosser, but just for kicks every now and then I’d use the X-head. Maybe it’ll become your go-to.The Trade-Offs of a Cordless Water FlosserThere’s a confusingly, similarly named Philips Sonicare Power Flosser 3000 that’s far, far different because it’s corded and designed to live on your bathroom counter. I’ve tested that one, too, and it’s excellent, but it’s a wholly different beast. It has more power settings and a larger water tank, but those aren’t where it differs the most.Even aside from the fact that you have to keep the cordless model charged and the corded model is kept plugged into a wall outlet, and aside from the fact that the corded model takes up a lot more room on your bathroom counter, using them is very different.Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 – Credit: Matt JancerThe part of the corded model that you hold is smaller and more nimble, making it easier to maneuver around your mouth. It ties you to one place more so than the cordless model. By comparison, the cordless model is heavier to hold because the internal battery and water tank are all incorporated together and held in your hand.It also made it a bit more unwieldy to use on my back teeth. But I liked being able to throw the water flosser into a drawer when I wasn’t using it and not having an enormous cinder block living on my counter top. Plus, I like to travel with all my usual hygiene products, and the cordless model is a lot easier to take along in a suitcase.Refills and RechargesFilling any cordless water flosser is a bit tougher than on a corded model that has a huge, easy-to-fill water tank, but this cordless Philips’ 250ml water reservoir had a large enough filling window that I had plenty of room to fill it underneath the bathroom sink faucet without feeling like I was trying to catch a thread in the head of a needle. The water tank had plenty to clean my entire mouth without having to refill it, with a bit of water left over after each go. I never had to stress out about running out of water mid job.Charging the Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 takes up to eight hours according to Philips. That’s quite a long time, but here’s the catch: It only takes 60-90 seconds to clean your mouth, so you should get at least two or three weeks of use between charges. I didn’t actually have to recharge it during my testing.the Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 at a glanceThe Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 is a solid-feeling, well made cordless water flosser with three power settings that, when you toggle “deep clean” mode, multiples the available settings to six. Sure, it’s not as nimble as a corded water flosser, but it’s easier to use than simple floss, especially if you have dexterity issues with your hands.The Cordless Power Flosser 3000 wins out for travel because it’s powerful, yet compact. Those same aspects make it a wise choice for those who can’t or don’t want to dedicate a chunk of bathroom countertop space to a corded model that can’t be easily thrown into a drawer between uses.fill the Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 in the sink – Credit: Matt Janceris a water flosser better than flossing?It depends on who you ask. Nobody says a water flosser does a worse job than traditional floss. The Mayo Clinic says both are solid options and doesn’t take a position, whereas other dental offices say the water flosser is better than floss. And the Cleveland Clinic cites dentists and the American Dental Association as saying water flosser is a nice bonus for your mouth, but that you should also use regular floss. The concern seems to be that floss is best able to get up to the gum line and scrape off that hard-to-remove plaque better than a water flosser.I’m not a dentist, but I’d say that if you’re currently doing nothing, then using a water flosser alone is the better move than continuing to tell your dentist that you’ll definitely, certainly, for sure start flossing and then never follow through with it. Buy that water flosser and keep a $1 roll of floss in the bathroom drawer for those occasions when the water flosser is being stubborn or when you want to tackle that floss way up by the gum line that the water flosser might miss.the bottom lineI’m one of those people who flosses every night. Or almost every night. I’m well aware that once you get out of the habit of doing so, though, it can be hard to begin again. And for some reason, it’s always been easier for me to yank out the water flosser than to unspool the dental floss.It can’t be laziness, can it? Flossing isn’t exactly an intensely demanding event. But whereas regular flossing leads to bleeding gums (at least when your gums aren’t used to it) and can be a mild discomfort, using the Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 felt good. It was like a water massage for my mouth. And maybe that’s the secret sauce that could help you finally become a habitual flosser: a little self-care and healthy pleasure before you hop into bed, made easy.The post Your Dentist Knows You’re Lying. Come Clean with this Philips Sonicare Water Flosser (Review) appeared first on VICE.