Procter & Gamble (P&G) is bringing the dentist into the bathroom with the world’s first smartphone-connected toothbrush, a device that gives personalised advice to help people improve their brushing.
The toothbrush, to be sold under P&G’s Oral-B brand and which will be widely available from June, has a Bluetooth 4 link to a smartphone app that can be programmed with the help of a dentist, for example to pay more attention to any areas of the mouth being neglected, according to P&G.
“The app provides real-time guidance,” Michael Cohen-Dumani, the global associate director for Oral-B, said. “Dentists always tell us: ‘People do a great job in the week before they come to visit us and in the week after they visit us. But nothing can hide the fact that when we look inside the mouth we can see all the areas they miss’.”
The toothbrush will be unveiled at the phone industry’s annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, joining an expanding range of devices connected to smartphones that measure everything from sleep patterns and calorie intake to distance walked and exercise taken.
Professionals helped develop the app as a tool to manage patients’ behaviour between visits. It will be at top end the Oral-B electric toothbrush range, with a recommended retail price of £199 (R3 676) in Britain and e219 (R3 320) in Europe. – Reuters