The present invention relates to an electric toothbrush, in particular the hand part of such an electric toothbrush, comprising a housing, a drive, which is resiliently mounted on the housing by means of a spring device and can be moved in an oscillating manner in at least one plane of movement, preferably transversely in relation to the longitudinal axis of the toothbrush, and comprising a transmission element connected to the drive for transmitting the drive movement to a brush head. According to the invention, it is proposed to control the direction of the generated driving movement of theresiliently mounted drive, and consequently the cleaning motion of the brush head of the toothbrush generated as a result, in a targeted manner, in particular to impart different amplitudes to the said driving movement in different directions.; According to the invention, the spring device by means of which the drive is resiliently mounted on the housing has different spring constants in two mutually perpendicular directions in the plane of movement of the drive, so that the driving movement of the drive is provided with different amplitudes in these directions.