15 ms·

My question is: why do an Oral-B app and a Colgate app even exist?

by pif 2y ago

fragmede 2y ago
to log how well you're brushing your teeth, so it can advise you on how to brush your teeth better, so you can have better teeth and not have to see the dentist. it's a late stage technology thing. I wasn't born with an innate ability to know how to brush my teeth or how to shave (my electric razor also has an app), I had to learn how. If the devices I use can tell that I'm using them wrong, and there's a better way to do things, it's nice to have it tell me.
- ragnese 2y ago
  And if we were in an alternate universe where we had reason to believe that the app did this analysis offline and never sent the data off to be sold to who-knows-who, that would be fine.
- broast 2y ago
  I'm not familiar with the apps, how does it measure and improve your dental health?
  - russb 2y ago
    The idea is to help focus brushing on specific teeth or quadrants, and it uses Bluetooth to know when the brush is on or off. Maybe it signals when you push too hard and the brush pauses for a second as well. To my knowledge it does not know where you are in your mouth when brushing (positioning via accelerometer/gyroscope), so a synchronized start would likely give similar results.
- rdudek 2y ago
  Except brushing is just one piece of an overall oral health. Flossing is another thing. Then you got your diet which plays a great role in your teeth health. How would one tracking app know all of this?
  - vel0city 2y ago
    Tracking the temperature and time of cooking is only one part about grilling meats. There's still cutting the meat, ingredients in the rub, applying the rub, the cooldown, the final slicing, and so much more. Why bother having an app-connected remote thermometer if it can't do all of these things? I don't care for an app-connected toothbrush personally. But suggesting that just because it can't keep track of your diet overall means it can't possibly give any insights in health is overly reductive. A workout tracker app can't keep track of your food intake, but that doesn't mean it can't help the user be healthier.
- barbazoo 2y ago
  When I was a child we got taught that at school. They had a large model of the human mouth and an oversized toothbrush. Perhaps that's too low tech for folks nowadays, I don't know. Apart from the I go to the dentist 2-3 times a year, they do a great job telling me what area of my mouth I need to focus on. A toothbrush wouldn't really be able to give me that info anyway.
eagerpace 2y ago
To collect data so they can do marketing and advertising to customers.
- lowtech8 2y ago
  And charge them more, maybe sell some of their personal data too
  - maccard 2y ago
    To who? Say I have an app with 1M downloads. Who do I sell 1M email addresses and the fact they've bought a toothbrush to?
    - johndough 2y ago
      People who install a tooth brushing app will probably buy all kinds of electronics stuff, so I'd wager that such a list would be somewhat valuable.
      - maccard 2y ago
        I hear these things, but I don’t know who these companies are. It feels a bit like the tv license ban
    - ragnese 2y ago
      Honestly, even if it's not sustainable and never ends up profitable, I'd be willing to bet there are multiple entities that exist that would pay you some ridiculous amount of money for that info just to try to resell that info or attempt to monetize it directly "some day". Think about how many companies have pivoted to burning cash on adding "AI" to their products. How many of those cases are going to end up actually being a good business decision? Probably very few. It's likely the same with everyone just wanting "data" to "analyze"--even if they have no idea how it might be useful.
- barbazoo 2y ago
  How does that work here? Say I have that toothbrush, the app, and say I had to sign up to use it. What they know is how long the toothbrush is on. How are they going to monetize that data?
RIMR 2y ago
The same reason your smartwatch and bathroom scale has an app: People want to log and track their health data.
- Wytwwww 2y ago
  But you're logging actual data with those? Or do they make tooth brushes which monitor your mouth's biome or something like that these days?
  - antimemetics 2y ago
    Yes they make a 3d map of your mouth. It’s nonsensical but here we are
    - datavirtue 2y ago
      Product owners love that shit. No thoughts or analysis required. "That's so cool...I LOVE IT!" I hear that phrase used on so many boring, bad ideas.
  - diggan 2y ago
    > Or do they make tooth brushes which monitor your mouth's biome or something like that these days? I'd buy a toothbrush that did that, even if it had "AI" in it's name. But no, I think it just logs the brush duration and for the more expensive models the "coverage", or something like that.
  - vel0city 2y ago
    Not biome, but it is pretty trivial to track: - Brushing pressure - How long you brush - When you brush - Where you brush (tracking orientation and motion) With that, you might see some trend of "you brush your left-back-bottom teeth a little harder than the rest, and you're not quite getting your front middle teeth very well". Now, if that data is actually useful logged and analyzed is another question. I've got a toothbrush that theoretically has bluetooth connectivity support. I've never used it. But I do like there's a colorful ring that lights up to show the brushing pressure and I do like the 30 second timer feature to help ensure I brush each area of my mouth about the same amount of time. Neither require bluetooth and an app though.
beejiu 2y ago
The same reason they now have a toothbrush with AI. Because they are in a race to continuously re-invent the toothbrush every year to create new USPs, create new marketing angles and keep sales high.
- uhtred 2y ago
  A toothbrush with AI is the funniest thing I've read today, thank you.
  - NeoTar 2y ago
    I have seen products reported about on YouTube that used ‘ai’ to mean a timer.
- neuralRiot 2y ago
  As Arthur Schopenhauer said: “Buying books would be a good thing if you could also buy the time to read them” People think that everything can be solved by an app, “if you can’t do it without it probly won’t with it either”
axegon_ 2y ago
I asked a similar question a while back on here regarding a toothbrush with an esp inside. I think one of the answers I got captured it nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4W7yB9Mow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4W7yB9Mow
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
supercoffee 2y ago
I'm surprised that health insurance companies haven't started offering "good brusher" discounts the way car insurance companies offer a "good driver" discount when you use their car data logging device/app.
- tqi 2y ago
  Dental insurance isn't really insurance, in the usual sense[1]. [1] https://www.vox.com/23901293/dentist-delta-dental-insurance-cigna-aspen-metlife-aetna https://www.vox.com/23901293/dentist-delta-dental-insurance-...
  - kelnos 2y ago
    Most regular medical insurance isn't really insurance, in the usual sense. "Classical" insurance only pays out when something goes wrong, in defined amounts based on what's gone wrong. And while certainly insurers like to find ways not to pay out when you report a claim, there are usually far fewer gotchas with things like auto insurance, home insurance, event insurance, etc., than there is for medical insurance, where you could be denied coverage just because the "wrong" ambulance company took you to the hospital. Not to mention that anything that pays for preventative doctor/dentist/etc. visits isn't really "insurance". But it's fine; we call it insurance anyway, and everyone knows what it means, so there's no problem.
    - tqi 2y ago
      That's not the point. From the article: “When you look at the dental insurance model, it doesn’t protect the patient from financial risk. It’s the opposite,” said Marko Vujicic, chief economist and vice president of the Health Policy Institute at the American Dental Association. “Once the benefit runs out, the $1,400 or whatever it is, all of that financial burden is on the patient. So it protects the insurer, they’re limited on their exposure.” In other words, there is no real benefit to offering a "good brusher" discounts.
- ragnese 2y ago
  I fucking hate this dystopian future we've already entered. It's only a matter of time until every car on the road is connected to the internet and has the "good driver" logging built-in and automatically sent to your insurer. They'll also know exactly where you've driven to and when via GPS. Then they'll offer you discounts on the restaurants and stores you frequently drive to, and everyone will love it and tell ME that I'm the crazy one... /rant
jimjimjim 2y ago
It's like those ads for coke or mcdonalds. They aren't giving anybody any new information. Instead it's to continuously put the logos, branding and name into the mind of the viewer/user. That way people should feel that brand is more familiar to them rather than all the other "unknown" brands and will be more likely to by said brand. Same thing with the app. They get their logo/brand in your eyes every time you need to use it. Takeaway: They don't even need to sell the data
dudeinjapan 2y ago
In America, you buy a toothbrush. In Soviet Russia, toothbrush buys you!
- deepfriedchokes 2y ago
  It’s this but backwards.
eloisant 2y ago
The app can tell you which teeth are correctly cleaned (i.e. you spend enough time on it) and which teeth you forgot or went too fast. Personally I just used it once and ended up removing it, but I can see some people using it to ensure their brushing is efficient. Anyway, it's completely optional, you can just use the brush ignoring the existence of the app.
- dyauspitr 2y ago
  That’s actually kind of cool. That’s exactly the sort of feedback that gets me to do things correctly. Detailed feedback has enabled me to consistently work out, wake up early and eat healthy. They’ve helped me keep those good habits going for 4 years now. I’m the kind of guy these apps are built for.
  - leipert 2y ago
    If you don’t mind me asking, how do you keep track of eating healthy?
    - dyauspitr 2y ago
      It’s not one app but a mix of different things. Alarms to take supplements at meal times, Amazon subscriptions set to the right intervals so I always have oatmeal for my breakfast, supplements before they run out etc., alarms that tell me when to stop eating and start eating again after a 14 hour gap for IF, shopping in bulk at Costco and making sure there is nothing in the house that’s “bad” for me. I’m not tracking my meals. I did use MyFitnessPal for a bit but I didn’t find it useful.
  - jjulius 2y ago
    But "detailed feedback" isn't "accurate feedback". I mean, it's pretty 'neat' that it can tell you which teeth have been 'correctly' cleaned based on the amount of time you spend in a specific spot, but is that an accurate gauge? What if you (for whatever reason, doesn't matter) only ate on the left side of your mouth for dinner? You'd spend plenty of time on the left side, but the app might tell you you've done a bad job on the right. Further, depending on what you ate, it might take longer than whatever their predetermined time is to clean the side that had a disproportionate amount of food on it. What if you have had a tough time with a couple of "problem teeth" that need a bit more love? Is the app capable of tracking where those "problem teeth" are and ensuring that you're spending extra attention there? I dunno... to me, it seems like it's a no brainer to me when my teeth are clean - I can feel it. Unless a toothbrush has some detailed sensors in the head, I'm gonna seriously doubt its ability to tell me when my teeth are actually clean.
bugbuddy 2y ago
Because humanity has to keep itself busy with trivial things or civilization will implode from sheer boredom.
aaron695 2y ago
[dead]
kelnos 2y ago
Didn't read as I'm on a no-Twitter diet, so I'm not sure exactly which app they're referring to, but my Oral-B toothbrush has an app that tracks brushing habits over Bluetooth. I decided when I bought it that I would never ever ever install that app or make use of these features (it's tooth-brushing, for crying out loud), and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. I'm sure the company just wants to collect data about my brushing habits in order to sell it to... someone, who knows.
- onion2k 2y ago
  Aren't you buying a toothbrush with a bunch of features you'll never use though? Why not just buy a less fully-featured privacy respecting toothbrush? (Something is up with the world when you're thinking about toothbrushes that respect your privacy. It's like something out of a Douglas Adams book.)
  - kelnos 2y ago
    Sure, but pretty much my only considerations were the quality of brushing, cost of new brushes, and general reliability. The one I thought was best and in-budget just happened to have these anti-features too, which fortunately I don't have to use. It wasn't worth it to me to spend more time on it to see if I could find something without the connected crap. (And I do wonder if the connected crap makes the device cheaper, since they're hoping to make money on selling user data.)
  - latexr 2y ago
    This is speculation, but maybe electric toothbrushes are going the way of TVs, in that most have “smart” features and you pay a premium for one without.
SoftTalker 2y ago
They need some reason to make you think that a $$$ toothbrush that is yet another device that takes up another electrical outlet and space on your bathroom countertop is better than a $2 brush you can keep out of sight in a drawer and that you will never forget to charge.
- PlunderBunny 2y ago
  As someone that owns a $2 tooth brush, I've always wondered if it was better to put it in a drawer where mould etc might build up on the brush faster, but it was protected from the air in the rest of the bathroom (c.f. Mythbusters "There is poop on everything"). Perhaps the answer is to put the toothbrush in a different room!
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago
    The toilet belongs in a different room! Used to be called a water closet.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  An electric toothbrush is better than a regular toothbrush for the same reason that your dental hygienist doesn't use a regular toothbrush for your biyearly cleanings.
  - SapporoChris 2y ago
    Okay, so it is better. How much better is it? I don't use an electric toothbrush, I haven't had a cavity since childhood. Why do I need a better toothbrush? Can the cost be justified?
    - shiroiushi 2y ago
      IANAD, but if you're good at brushing, it probably won't cause you to have fewer cavities. But speaking from personal experience, it's better at actually cleaning your teeth surfaces (you can see this yourself when you visit the dentist: notice how much smoother they feel after polishing), and it's just plain easier to use since you don't have to move your arm/wrist around and don't have to worry about making sure you're using circular motions like your dentist recommends. The brush head on an electric brush moves much faster than you possibly could, so all you have to do is put it on your teeth and apply proper pressure. No, it's not as cheap as a $2 toothbrush, but for some at least, the convenience is worth the extra cost. Plus, most dentists I've had in the last decade have recommended using one.
1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
Most "apps" are Trojans for the purpose of data collection. What happens with the data that is collected is NOYB (none of your business).
amy-petrik-214 2y ago
since this is YC, maybe to understand oral-B's business model which is avante-garde, you could consider this great piece on their main competitor (SmartPipe): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ

My question is: why do an Oral-B app and a Colgate app even exist?

by pif 2y ago

My question is: why do an Oral-B app and a Colgate app even exist?

to log how well you're brushing your teeth, so it can advise you on how to brush your teeth better, so you can have better teeth and not have to see the dentist. it's a late stage technology thing. I wasn't born with an innate ability to know how to brush my teeth or how to shave (my electric razor also has an app), I had to learn how. If the devices I use can tell that I'm using them wrong, and there's a better way to do things, it's nice to have it tell me.

ragnese 2y ago
And if we were in an alternate universe where we had reason to believe that the app did this analysis offline and never sent the data off to be sold to who-knows-who, that would be fine.
broast 2y ago
I'm not familiar with the apps, how does it measure and improve your dental health?
- russb 2y ago
  The idea is to help focus brushing on specific teeth or quadrants, and it uses Bluetooth to know when the brush is on or off. Maybe it signals when you push too hard and the brush pauses for a second as well. To my knowledge it does not know where you are in your mouth when brushing (positioning via accelerometer/gyroscope), so a synchronized start would likely give similar results.
rdudek 2y ago
Except brushing is just one piece of an overall oral health. Flossing is another thing. Then you got your diet which plays a great role in your teeth health. How would one tracking app know all of this?
- vel0city 2y ago
  Tracking the temperature and time of cooking is only one part about grilling meats. There's still cutting the meat, ingredients in the rub, applying the rub, the cooldown, the final slicing, and so much more. Why bother having an app-connected remote thermometer if it can't do all of these things? I don't care for an app-connected toothbrush personally. But suggesting that just because it can't keep track of your diet overall means it can't possibly give any insights in health is overly reductive. A workout tracker app can't keep track of your food intake, but that doesn't mean it can't help the user be healthier.
barbazoo 2y ago
When I was a child we got taught that at school. They had a large model of the human mouth and an oversized toothbrush. Perhaps that's too low tech for folks nowadays, I don't know. Apart from the I go to the dentist 2-3 times a year, they do a great job telling me what area of my mouth I need to focus on. A toothbrush wouldn't really be able to give me that info anyway.

eagerpace 2y ago

To collect data so they can do marketing and advertising to customers.

lowtech8 2y ago
And charge them more, maybe sell some of their personal data too
- maccard 2y ago
  To who? Say I have an app with 1M downloads. Who do I sell 1M email addresses and the fact they've bought a toothbrush to?
  - johndough 2y ago
    People who install a tooth brushing app will probably buy all kinds of electronics stuff, so I'd wager that such a list would be somewhat valuable.
    - maccard 2y ago
      I hear these things, but I don’t know who these companies are. It feels a bit like the tv license ban
  - ragnese 2y ago
    Honestly, even if it's not sustainable and never ends up profitable, I'd be willing to bet there are multiple entities that exist that would pay you some ridiculous amount of money for that info just to try to resell that info or attempt to monetize it directly "some day". Think about how many companies have pivoted to burning cash on adding "AI" to their products. How many of those cases are going to end up actually being a good business decision? Probably very few. It's likely the same with everyone just wanting "data" to "analyze"--even if they have no idea how it might be useful.
barbazoo 2y ago
How does that work here? Say I have that toothbrush, the app, and say I had to sign up to use it. What they know is how long the toothbrush is on. How are they going to monetize that data?

RIMR 2y ago

The same reason your smartwatch and bathroom scale has an app: People want to log and track their health data.

Wytwwww 2y ago
But you're logging actual data with those? Or do they make tooth brushes which monitor your mouth's biome or something like that these days?
- antimemetics 2y ago
  Yes they make a 3d map of your mouth. It’s nonsensical but here we are
  - datavirtue 2y ago
    Product owners love that shit. No thoughts or analysis required. "That's so cool...I LOVE IT!" I hear that phrase used on so many boring, bad ideas.
- diggan 2y ago
  > Or do they make tooth brushes which monitor your mouth's biome or something like that these days? I'd buy a toothbrush that did that, even if it had "AI" in it's name. But no, I think it just logs the brush duration and for the more expensive models the "coverage", or something like that.
- vel0city 2y ago
  Not biome, but it is pretty trivial to track: - Brushing pressure - How long you brush - When you brush - Where you brush (tracking orientation and motion) With that, you might see some trend of "you brush your left-back-bottom teeth a little harder than the rest, and you're not quite getting your front middle teeth very well". Now, if that data is actually useful logged and analyzed is another question. I've got a toothbrush that theoretically has bluetooth connectivity support. I've never used it. But I do like there's a colorful ring that lights up to show the brushing pressure and I do like the 30 second timer feature to help ensure I brush each area of my mouth about the same amount of time. Neither require bluetooth and an app though.

beejiu 2y ago

The same reason they now have a toothbrush with AI. Because they are in a race to continuously re-invent the toothbrush every year to create new USPs, create new marketing angles and keep sales high.

uhtred 2y ago
A toothbrush with AI is the funniest thing I've read today, thank you.
- NeoTar 2y ago
  I have seen products reported about on YouTube that used ‘ai’ to mean a timer.
neuralRiot 2y ago
As Arthur Schopenhauer said: “Buying books would be a good thing if you could also buy the time to read them” People think that everything can be solved by an app, “if you can’t do it without it probly won’t with it either”

axegon_ 2y ago

I asked a similar question a while back on here regarding a toothbrush with an esp inside. I think one of the answers I got captured it nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4W7yB9Mow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4W7yB9Mow

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

supercoffee 2y ago

I'm surprised that health insurance companies haven't started offering "good brusher" discounts the way car insurance companies offer a "good driver" discount when you use their car data logging device/app.

tqi 2y ago
Dental insurance isn't really insurance, in the usual sense[1]. [1] https://www.vox.com/23901293/dentist-delta-dental-insurance-cigna-aspen-metlife-aetna https://www.vox.com/23901293/dentist-delta-dental-insurance-...
- kelnos 2y ago
  Most regular medical insurance isn't really insurance, in the usual sense. "Classical" insurance only pays out when something goes wrong, in defined amounts based on what's gone wrong. And while certainly insurers like to find ways not to pay out when you report a claim, there are usually far fewer gotchas with things like auto insurance, home insurance, event insurance, etc., than there is for medical insurance, where you could be denied coverage just because the "wrong" ambulance company took you to the hospital. Not to mention that anything that pays for preventative doctor/dentist/etc. visits isn't really "insurance". But it's fine; we call it insurance anyway, and everyone knows what it means, so there's no problem.
  - tqi 2y ago
    That's not the point. From the article: “When you look at the dental insurance model, it doesn’t protect the patient from financial risk. It’s the opposite,” said Marko Vujicic, chief economist and vice president of the Health Policy Institute at the American Dental Association. “Once the benefit runs out, the $1,400 or whatever it is, all of that financial burden is on the patient. So it protects the insurer, they’re limited on their exposure.” In other words, there is no real benefit to offering a "good brusher" discounts.
ragnese 2y ago
I fucking hate this dystopian future we've already entered. It's only a matter of time until every car on the road is connected to the internet and has the "good driver" logging built-in and automatically sent to your insurer. They'll also know exactly where you've driven to and when via GPS. Then they'll offer you discounts on the restaurants and stores you frequently drive to, and everyone will love it and tell ME that I'm the crazy one... /rant

jimjimjim 2y ago

It's like those ads for coke or mcdonalds. They aren't giving anybody any new information. Instead it's to continuously put the logos, branding and name into the mind of the viewer/user. That way people should feel that brand is more familiar to them rather than all the other "unknown" brands and will be more likely to by said brand. Same thing with the app. They get their logo/brand in your eyes every time you need to use it. Takeaway: They don't even need to sell the data

dudeinjapan 2y ago

In America, you buy a toothbrush. In Soviet Russia, toothbrush buys you!

deepfriedchokes 2y ago
It’s this but backwards.

eloisant 2y ago

The app can tell you which teeth are correctly cleaned (i.e. you spend enough time on it) and which teeth you forgot or went too fast. Personally I just used it once and ended up removing it, but I can see some people using it to ensure their brushing is efficient. Anyway, it's completely optional, you can just use the brush ignoring the existence of the app.

dyauspitr 2y ago
That’s actually kind of cool. That’s exactly the sort of feedback that gets me to do things correctly. Detailed feedback has enabled me to consistently work out, wake up early and eat healthy. They’ve helped me keep those good habits going for 4 years now. I’m the kind of guy these apps are built for.
- leipert 2y ago
  If you don’t mind me asking, how do you keep track of eating healthy?
  - dyauspitr 2y ago
    It’s not one app but a mix of different things. Alarms to take supplements at meal times, Amazon subscriptions set to the right intervals so I always have oatmeal for my breakfast, supplements before they run out etc., alarms that tell me when to stop eating and start eating again after a 14 hour gap for IF, shopping in bulk at Costco and making sure there is nothing in the house that’s “bad” for me. I’m not tracking my meals. I did use MyFitnessPal for a bit but I didn’t find it useful.
- jjulius 2y ago
  But "detailed feedback" isn't "accurate feedback". I mean, it's pretty 'neat' that it can tell you which teeth have been 'correctly' cleaned based on the amount of time you spend in a specific spot, but is that an accurate gauge? What if you (for whatever reason, doesn't matter) only ate on the left side of your mouth for dinner? You'd spend plenty of time on the left side, but the app might tell you you've done a bad job on the right. Further, depending on what you ate, it might take longer than whatever their predetermined time is to clean the side that had a disproportionate amount of food on it. What if you have had a tough time with a couple of "problem teeth" that need a bit more love? Is the app capable of tracking where those "problem teeth" are and ensuring that you're spending extra attention there? I dunno... to me, it seems like it's a no brainer to me when my teeth are clean - I can feel it. Unless a toothbrush has some detailed sensors in the head, I'm gonna seriously doubt its ability to tell me when my teeth are actually clean.

bugbuddy 2y ago

Because humanity has to keep itself busy with trivial things or civilization will implode from sheer boredom.

aaron695 2y ago

[dead]

kelnos 2y ago

Didn't read as I'm on a no-Twitter diet, so I'm not sure exactly which app they're referring to, but my Oral-B toothbrush has an app that tracks brushing habits over Bluetooth. I decided when I bought it that I would never ever ever install that app or make use of these features (it's tooth-brushing, for crying out loud), and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. I'm sure the company just wants to collect data about my brushing habits in order to sell it to... someone, who knows.

onion2k 2y ago
Aren't you buying a toothbrush with a bunch of features you'll never use though? Why not just buy a less fully-featured privacy respecting toothbrush? (Something is up with the world when you're thinking about toothbrushes that respect your privacy. It's like something out of a Douglas Adams book.)
- kelnos 2y ago
  Sure, but pretty much my only considerations were the quality of brushing, cost of new brushes, and general reliability. The one I thought was best and in-budget just happened to have these anti-features too, which fortunately I don't have to use. It wasn't worth it to me to spend more time on it to see if I could find something without the connected crap. (And I do wonder if the connected crap makes the device cheaper, since they're hoping to make money on selling user data.)
- latexr 2y ago
  This is speculation, but maybe electric toothbrushes are going the way of TVs, in that most have “smart” features and you pay a premium for one without.

SoftTalker 2y ago

They need some reason to make you think that a $$$ toothbrush that is yet another device that takes up another electrical outlet and space on your bathroom countertop is better than a $2 brush you can keep out of sight in a drawer and that you will never forget to charge.

PlunderBunny 2y ago
As someone that owns a $2 tooth brush, I've always wondered if it was better to put it in a drawer where mould etc might build up on the brush faster, but it was protected from the air in the rest of the bathroom (c.f. Mythbusters "There is poop on everything"). Perhaps the answer is to put the toothbrush in a different room!
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago
  The toilet belongs in a different room! Used to be called a water closet.
shiroiushi 2y ago
An electric toothbrush is better than a regular toothbrush for the same reason that your dental hygienist doesn't use a regular toothbrush for your biyearly cleanings.
- SapporoChris 2y ago
  Okay, so it is better. How much better is it? I don't use an electric toothbrush, I haven't had a cavity since childhood. Why do I need a better toothbrush? Can the cost be justified?
  - shiroiushi 2y ago
    IANAD, but if you're good at brushing, it probably won't cause you to have fewer cavities. But speaking from personal experience, it's better at actually cleaning your teeth surfaces (you can see this yourself when you visit the dentist: notice how much smoother they feel after polishing), and it's just plain easier to use since you don't have to move your arm/wrist around and don't have to worry about making sure you're using circular motions like your dentist recommends. The brush head on an electric brush moves much faster than you possibly could, so all you have to do is put it on your teeth and apply proper pressure. No, it's not as cheap as a $2 toothbrush, but for some at least, the convenience is worth the extra cost. Plus, most dentists I've had in the last decade have recommended using one.

1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago

Most "apps" are Trojans for the purpose of data collection. What happens with the data that is collected is NOYB (none of your business).

amy-petrik-214 2y ago

since this is YC, maybe to understand oral-B's business model which is avante-garde, you could consider this great piece on their main competitor (SmartPipe): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ