Oclean W10 Water Flosser Review

If you’re anything like me, you have a mixed history with dental care stemming from some pretty questionable scare tactics used in dental education around the 80’s and 90’s (I’ve spoken to people in the dental profession and apparently it’s not just me who found it a bit traumatic). So seeing new advances in dental care tools is an interesting experience. The change from manual toothbrushes to electric has grown substantially over the years and it seems flossing is the new area to get the power treatment.

The Oclean W10 Water Flosser professes to have 5 flossing modes, up to 1,400 Pulses per minute and up to 30 days battery life. Which all sounds great… if you can use it. I’ll get back to that in a moment. Opening the box, everything is neatly laid out and things look simple enough. There’s the main bulk of the content, clearly the device itself, there are a couple of nozzles and a charging cable plus some paperwork. Being my first time ever laying eyes let alone hands on a water flosser I figured it would be best to read the instructions first.

The booklet basically makes it very clear that no one under 12 should use the device. In fact anyone who might have some mental impairment or difficulty shouldn’t use the device. You should make sure you know how to use the device and possibly only do so with supervision. It is made very clear that there can be issues using this device. Basically an abundance of caution is advised. Ok… great, that makes sense… in theory this thing is a strong jet of water and could be dangerous if misused… good work Oclean. So how do I use it… no really… some instructions would be good here. Nope… just the same warnings in different languages. Ok. Any QR code or link to instructions? Nope.

After a bit of a search online I found the product page which does kind of show how to use the water flosser… on a pair of those dentists display teeth (you know the sort that are like the grown up version of those wind up chatting teeth). What you might notice (or might not) when watching this video is just how much water sprays off the target area… ie splashback. I should note at this point that I actually tried using the water flosser before finding this video. I figured it shouldn’t be too hard… yes I might have been a bit dense here but I kind of like to be able to see what I’m doing, so I used the water flosser with my mouth wide open (again I wanted to be able to “target” it)… my mirror was covered in water after a very short moment. I later found another video of someone demonstrating how to use a water flosser and they basically closed their lips around the nozzle and then sprayed.

Once you get the hang of it… the Oclean W10 Water Flosser does seem quite impressive. It definitely has some power to it, so the fact it does indeed have five different settings to choose from is great. I’d recommend anyone trying one for the first time… put it on the lowest setting. The water reservoir certainly seems sufficient to provide a whole mouth floss. I am not entirely sure how you are supposed to floss the back of your teeth… or perhaps you aren’t supposed to at all (with traditional flossing it’s sort of covered in the process of the floss being placed front to back between the teeth). With the water flosser… unless you are contorting at some odd angles… the unit tends to need to be tipped upside down which then causes issues with the pump and access to the water.

Final Thoughts:

As mentioned earlier… I like to be able to see what I’m doing when flossing… so the fact that to really use the water flosser you need to have your mouth closed (because even if you try using it with your mouth open, your mirror will be coated in water in mere moments anyway), means it’s not really for me. I’m not really sure what I was expecting (many of you may have already been thinking that)… I guess I wasn’t thinking of just how much “rebound” the spray would produce. For those who are adept at water flossing… I suspect this unit will do a fantastic job, as mentioned it has a very strong spray and can be directed quite well. The lack of instructions for how to use it, especially after placing so many warnings for the usage, seems odd and I thought was a real let down. Perhaps either see a demonstration of a water flosser first or try one before giving it a go… if it’s something you like, grab it… if not, standard floss should still be fine.