Update: I just wanted to discuss a new technology and didn’t mean to advertise any specific product. I edited the post to hopefully have less of that tone. Sorry about that.
Toothbrushes are simple devices that haven’t changed much. Companies started increasing the price and adding useless features such as a thousand “whitening”, “massage”, and “deep clean” modes that don’t do anything, or “smart” bluetooth/internet connection so it can sell your data and get hacked. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are “AI” toothbrushes now that require a phone app and subscription. But aside from all of that, there are actually some interesting and useful ways to improve toothbrushes using modern technology.
Intuitively, one unit of toothbrush area brushing against one unit of tooth area one time = one unit of cleaning, all else being equal. So there are a few obvious ways to improve cleaning: increase the number of brushes, increase the brushing area. You can increase the number of brushes by brushing for longer or using an electric toothbrush, but the toothbrush can’t be too powerful or it will damage your teeth. You can also try changing the toothpaste and brush material/layout and using more force, but it might be hard to come up with anything better that is safe for teeth. Which leaves one option, increasing the area. For some reason, electric toothbrush heads are so tiny, and I wondered if it would be possible to brush several teeth or even use two brushes at once (after all, I have two hands).
So I did some searching and found this brush. It has 3 parts to clean all sides of the teeth at once. How cool is that?
In terms of specs, the brand I got was similar to most other electric toothbrushes, with soft bristles and 500hz vibration (30000 brushes/minute or 60000 strokes/minute). It’s waterproof for use in the shower. It cost about 40$.
So how well does it work? In my experience, it is fine and doesn’t miss any spots. You’re normally supposed to brush for 2 minutes, so 40 seconds should be enough with 3 sides. In practice I end up brushing for 70-90 seconds when going at a natural speed so the extra cleaning is just a bonus.
But beyond the time saving, it feels nice to use. I only have to use one arm movement for each quadrant of the mouth, and once it’s in position there is less worry about getting the right angle or pressure or missing any spots. It makes brushing much simpler and frees up a little of your mind, especially if you are tired in the morning or night and in a hurry to get to school or work or bed. For people going through mental problems, it mean having motivation to brush at all.
Since less time is spent brushing, the batteries and brush heads also last for longer. The blue indicator lines on mine have yet to fade after 9 months of brushing twice per day.
Anyway, I like it and would recommend looking into unconventional toothbrush shapes and seeing if one works for you. I hope you enjoyed this slightly unusual post. I feel like too much of my blog is about computer software/programming, but that’s because most people use a computer so these topics are relevant to almost everyone. If I share a new website or program I made, it’s easy for you to check it out. Whereas there’s not much for you to discuss or take away from a post about going on vacation or playing a sport. But I do have a few other topics and ideas.
Happy moon festival, folks!