The ‘Smart’Way to BrushYour Teeth
Connecting Your Dental Hygiene to Your Phone
The history of the toothbrush includes some of the most fascinating inventions in dentistry. Starting in 3,000 B.C., the ancient Egyptians constructed brushes from twigs and leaves and inventively used the foliage to clean their chompers. By the 17th century, Europeans brandished a slightly more controversial toothbrush assembled from a sheep’s tibia and bristles of boar hair. Because of the off-putting nature of using sticks and bones as tools for oral hygiene, modern inventors have created a toothbrush that overshadows our ancestors’ devices by a long shot. In 2018, Philips, Oral-B, and Prophix released smart toothbrushes to give tech-savvy brushers an entirely different cleaning experience. The story of toothpaste is a story of marketing genius and human psychology. For thousands of years, humans had been cleaning their teeth with chew sticks, incense, charcoal, and even burnt bread crumbs. But as civilization evolved, the habit of brushing never stuck. Even though toothpaste and teeth cleaning products were readily available by the 20th century, most people weren’t using them. During World War I, so many men were drafted who had such terrible teeth that the U.S. Army called poor dental health a national security risk. It was around this time when an advertiser named Claude Hopkins was hired by the struggling toothpaste company, Pepsodent. Hopkins created an incredible marketing campaign that warned Americans of the dangerous “film” on their teeth. The ads claimed this film caused cavities and made
Today’s smart toothbrushes use Bluetooth wireless technology to transmit your brushing behavior to your phone’s app. Each brand comes with different bells and whistles, but if you are looking for a fun, more efficient way to manage your dental hygiene, there are several innovative brushes to choose from. The ones geared toward adults send updates to your phone in real time and give you feedback on your brushing habits. This means you can evaluate the data and actually improve your technique over time. Some new releases even include a camera to record the inside of your mouth as you brush. The camera also takes still images of your teeth so you teeth look discolored. It didn’t matter that the film was naturally occurring and could be removed by just running your finger across your teeth — the ads caught the nation’s attention. In the next decade, the number of Americans who regularly brushed their teeth jumped from 7 percent to 65 percent! This was a huge victory for Hopkins and oral health in America, but Pepsodent wasn’t the first brand of toothpaste. So what was it that made Pepsodent successful after Americans rejected plenty of other toothpaste brands? It’s all thanks to the minty freshness. Unlike other toothpaste brands, when people brushed with Pepsodent, they felt a tingling sensation from the mint flavoring. It was that sensation that stuck with people and kept them reaching for the toothpaste every morning and night. Even though the mint had nothing to do with how Pepsodent cleaned
can check for cavities and gum issues in those hard-to-see places.
There are also smart toothbrushes made specifically to motivate kids to care about their oral health. By gamifying the cleaning experience and giving young brushers levels or badges they can win through brushing, the process becomes more interactive and fun! With amazing options for people of all ages, it’s easy to see that dental tools have come a long way since the era of using foliage and livestock. With so many smart options available on the market, which one will you try first?
ALL IN YOUR HEAD
The Strange Psychology Behind Toothpaste
teeth, the minty craving and rewarding tingling sensation created a habit.
Today, toothpaste companies are still using sensation to create lasting habits. For example, early toothpaste brands foamed because of soap, but the soap didn’t really help clean teeth. However, when Colgate launched the first nonfoaming toothpaste in 1972, it was a disaster. In two years, they only sold 1,000 tubes. It turns out that people wanted the foam. Even though Colgate’s nonfoaming toothpaste worked just as well as its foaming brands, customers reported that their teeth didn’t feel as clean when they used the nonfoaming toothpaste. They switched back to their old toothpaste after just a few uses. Toothpaste is an integral part of daily dental hygiene, and we owe a big thanks to minty freshness for its success.
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