Teeth Cleaning for Dummies

I am quite prepared to go out on a limb on this. When it comes to the topic of tooth brush technology, I do not believe there has been a single significant advancement in tooth brush design since the dawn of the diamond shaped head and bent handle. Grips, coloured bristles, flexible bendy bits, and whatever other gimmicks tooth brush designers throw at us in a feeble attempt to justify their existence, are surely unnecessary distractions from the simple act of brushing ones teeth.

I thought I'd seen it all - that is, until last night, when I happened upon a television commercial advertising the latest in tooth brush wizardry - the Oral B "Triumph" tooth brush. And what's special about this one I hear you ask ? Well, it's claim to fame is that it is the first computer equipped tooth brush to hit the market.

What an age we live in.

It seems computer technology has now become so compact and affordable that the sky is quite literally the limit for its pointless application to problems that, quite frankly, never really needed solving. Nothing I have read about the "Triumph" suggests it offers anything that truly improves or enhances the teeth cleaning experience, or the quality of the clean.

Of course, they back their product up with firm support from Dentists. I wonder if these were the same dentists who believed tooth brushes needed rubber grips - perhaps they had seen too many horrific injuries caused by the inadvertent slip of the hand along the plastic tooth brush handle - but I digress.

From what I can tell, the most useful feedback the Triumph's chip provides is a constant monitor of its remaining battery charge. I am not sure of the statistics, but I don't think flat batteries in electric tooth brushes is a major cause of tooth decay. It also tells you when 2 minutes is up, which is apparently the optimal time spent on teeth cleaning. So put away that stop watch people - now you have the Triumph!

I don't mean to poo poo all research into better tooth brush designs. Seriously though, I don't think good oral hygiene really requires computer aided tooth brushes - particularly when its just a glorified stop watch. It's not that complicated a task.

What would Mrs Marsh think about all this ?