In general, bad toothbrushes are not necessarily better than regular electric toothbrushes. “A basic electric toothbrush will work perfectly in terms of cleaning the teeth and gums,” said Dr. Vaishali Singhal, an associate professor in the School of Dental Medicine at Rutgers University, told Engadget. “Bad toothbrushes have other features that a user might prefer, but in most cases, these features will not improve the brush.”
Colgate
Colgate’s hum aims to prove that bad toothbrushes are indeed beneficial, in large part through an app that teaches you better breast skills. One of the first things the companion app tells you to do is brush your teeth like you normally do so it can figure out your technique. I did that, and then I checked the app to see how I was doing. Apparently I only covered 49 percent of my teeth, and according to a 3D model, I did not spend enough time on my top cutters and bottom mills. Wot shameful! I had thought I was brushing my teeth nicely, but not according to the app.
The app then instructed me to try “Guided brushing”, a feature where you can chat in real time using proper brushing technique. I tried that, with the phone in front of me and the toothbrush in my mouth. The app instructed me to brush my teeth zone-by-zone, marking areas of my mouth on the 3D model as I went along. If I deviated from the instructions and brushed somewhere else, it would warn me to “check your zone” and would stop the progress until I returned. It even asked me to ‘Tilt the brush 45 degrees’ so I could brush closer to my gum line. After three minutes – which is certainly longer than my normal brushing time – I achieve a much better score of 98 percent coverage, with almost no area untouched.
Since the hum is synced offline, you could also just leave your phone somewhere else and without the brush. Colgate says the hum will contain up to ten days of data, and all you have to do to sync it with your app is bring it close to your phone. This is better than some smart toothbrushes that require you to have your phone next to you when you brush – this Oral-B Genius 8000 model even recommends that you use the front camera as a manual.
Over time, the hum will personalize recommendations on how you can brush better. So if you always have a tendency to skip your rear wheels, the app will figure that out and ask you to pay more attention to that area. You can also use the app to simply track basic stats, such as how often you brush and for how long. If you wish, there is an option to integrate these statistics with Apple Health if you want a one-stop location for all your health data.
Engadget / Colgate
If you use the hum without the app, it works like many other regular electric toothbrushes. A timer beeps every 30 seconds to remind you to switch to another area of your mouth, with a much louder beep at the two minute mark to indicate that you are ready. It also has three setting levels: a “deep clean” mode that works at high speed (the LED light will glow white), a normal mode at medium speed (blue glow) and a “sensitive” mode at low speed (pink glow).
But there does not seem to be a pressure sensor to let me know if I am pressing too hard on my gums. This is a feature on my current Oral-B Pro 1000 that I find quite useful, and am disappointed that it is missing here.
Another feature of the hum is that it rewards points for brushing (you get points for brushing rather than for completing certain tasks). You can then solve mentioned points for real goods, such as more hum toothbrushes than replacement brush heads. But seeing as one point equals one cent – the replacement heads, for example, come in a 2-pack for $ 9.99 or 999 points – you have to do a lot of brushing to redeem them. Colgate plans to partner with other ‘health and wellness brands’ to offer more in-store products, and you could also potentially donate a certain amount to the charity of your choice.
Colgate is not the only brand that offers reward ports for brushing your teeth. Quip’s latest smart toothbrush does that too, and in the same way you can hand out Quip points in exchange for Quip products or third-party items, such as a Target gift. The Quip does not seem to have the same level of sensors and algorithms as the Colgate hum, but it is priced at around $ 60 (replacement brush heads are also priced up to around $ 5 each). In fact, Colgate tells me that it will also offer a subscription service for its brush heads, which is very similar to what Quip does as well.
Engadget
Even though Dr. Singhal acknowledged that worse toothbrushes may be helpful in terms of encouraging brushes, it might not be for everyone. “It really comes down to personal preference and comfort factor,” she said. In general, she said that proper oral health was brushed for two minutes (30 seconds per quadrant), regular dental visits and regular flossing. “No matter how good the brush is, even a brush may not fit the contacts of the teeth in most people,” she said. “Flossing is a necessary addition to brushing.”
You should also be aware that when you use the hum with the app, Colgate collects data about you and your abusive habits (Other companies like Procter & Gamble (Oral-B) and Philips Oral Healthcare do the same with their smart toothbrushes). According to the company, the data is shared with third parties and affiliates, but is always anonymized and is never used for marketing purposes. Instead, the company claims that the data is used to provide the ‘connected brushing experience’ and help users with their brushing habits. You can also choose to share your data by not using the app at all, but that ignores the reason for getting the hum in the first place. You may not care about what your breast data says about you and that’s fine, but it’s good to be aware of the consequences of privacy the same.
One potential benefit of this data collection is the hum can have diagnostic capabilities. “The mouth is linked to your health,” said Dr. Pat Verduin, Colgate’s Chief Technology Officer. “[With the data] we could find out if you have an illness, and maybe what kind it is, whether it’s an oral illness or something more systemic. “It could also enable the latest form of teledentistry and send breast data to your dentist, which may help them learn and review your habits to improve your tooth pressure.” We think this brush has the capacity to do that. We think the platform really gives us the option to do that in the future. ”
Colgate has already placed a new higher-end smart toothbrush at this year’s CES, called the Plaqless Pro, which aims to actually identify plaque buildup when you brush. However, that is meant to be much more expensive than the hum, and the date of availability is not yet known.
The hum at Colgate will be available this September from Amazon, Walmart and Colgate’s website.
