I am a longtime user of the Oral-B CrossAction Toothbrush line, and am happy to see that they have now become very competitive price wise, selling at around $3 at Wal-Mart Canada. On launch, I remember paying $13 for this toothbrush as Zellers (it was the most expensive toothbrush I had ever purchased, but for some reason the marketing campaign sold me on it...then again, so did the marketing strategy behind that silly Gillette M3 Power (vibrating) Men's Razor, which coincidentally also cost me $13, but that's another story : )

The Oral-B CrossAction Toothbrush features a thick contoured rubberized handle (2 cm at its girth-iest point, 1 cm at the pinch or choke point) which fits nicely into the palm of the hand, and due to its rubberized contoured shape, seldomly slips or shifts out-of-place, providing a sure-footed (or, 'sure-handed' I should say) grip throughout.

The brush head design is multi-layered, with firm, short, narrow bristles lining the middle of the brush head and running horizontally across, facilitating the brushing between teeth or otherwise in those hard to reach places. The outer bristles, which are longer and softer, reach outward to ensure that areas of teeth around and next to the gum line are properly brushed.

Of course, with the price of these toothbrushes coming down considerably over the years, so I have noticed has quality. The criss-cross pattern of brush bristles (hence the trade name 'CrossAction' tends to level out (un-cross) with but a few weeks of brushing. Bristles now disconnect from the brush head and find their way into your toothpaste runnings during teeth brushing (this does not happen consistently, but rather, perhaps one bristle every couple of brushes).

Regardless, the comfort, design, and ease of use all make this toothbrush my number one choice for manual toothbrushes.