A brush head (12), an electric toothbrush (10), and a method of operating an electric toothbrush. The electric toothbrush (10) includes bristles extending from a base structure. A plurality of tufts (20) are formed as separate groups of the bristles (23) bundled together. A sensor assembly (28) is configured to generate, for each of the tufts, a signal representative of a force applied to each of the tufts. A controller (18) is configured to generate a tuft signature representing a distribution of the force applied to each of the tufts. This tuft signature may then be classified by appropriate algorithms to determine brushing parameters, such as applied pressure, angle, and the location in the user's mouth.