If you’re ready to put your money where you mouth is when it comes to oral hygiene, Oral-B has a new toothbrush and app for you.
The Genius, unveiled last month at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, is no ordinary dental device. And with an expected price tag of $250, it better not be.
For anyone who relies on a simple toothbrush to do the job, that may seem a bit exorbitant. But the Genius is outfitted with the latest technology to tell users how well they are cleaning their choppers. Accelerometers, gyroscopes, Bluetooth, a smartphone app and cloud storage are part of the advanced tooth technology, according to PCWorld.
The brush will connect to a smartphone camera and give instant feedback on whether users touched each zone of the mouth. It will also offer guidance on how much pressure was applied, or if users brushed long enough, according to a Yahoo technology report. It’s expected to hit the market in July.
The Genius is a step up from Oral-B’s current Bluetooth brushes, which measure pressure and help track users’ brushing routines.
Tech bloggers who tested the Genius didn’t keep their mouths shut about the experience. “I drool as I brush, so I tend to hunch over the sink. This caused problems for the app,” Peter Sayer, who writes about software and technology breaking news, said in a post on the PCWorld website. “On a couple of occasions, (the app) asked me to keep my head still and look at the phone.”
In the meantime, young brushers should not expect the tooth fairy to help them save for the latest in dental innovation. Tooth fairy giving, much like the economy, has taken a nosedive. The average monetary gift left under U.S. pillows fell 10.32% in 2015 to about $4 per tooth, according to Delta Dental’s annual Original Tooth Fairy Poll.
