4 ms·

Wow, what's with all of the hate? Someone uses a new technology to create a device that could be a more efficient way of solving a current problem, and the best

Wow, what's with all of the hate? Someone uses a new technology to create a device that could be a more efficient way of solving a current problem, and the best comments that anyone can write are complaints about how it's a bad idea or solving the wrong problem because they personally don't have this problem? What an awful way to encourage inventive people to follow their dreams and build new products for everyone. These attitudes kill entrepreneurship.

gohrt 13y ago
Well there's this: > What about clinical studies? > Clinical studies will be published soon, showing the same > dramatic improvements in plaque-removal and overall oral > hygiene that our inhouse testing and usage by > our first customers have already been showing. That's not quite how science works. But it's nice to see engineering geeks getting into the medical quackery business. Also: > It lasts 1 year - you receive a refurbished one (professionally cleaned and all bristles brandnew) for 89. So it's even more expensive to maintain than an electric toothbrush, which can also be shared among multiple users with different bristle heads.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - DanBC 13y ago
    Bob brushes more carefully with NEW STYLE BRUSH than he does with OLD STYLE BRUSH, thus leading people to think that the new brush is better. When actually, it isn't, because it misses the gum line and doesn't help prevent gum disease. Thus, the population using the new brush has more fillings, extractions, deaths from surgery, and deaths from heart disease associated with gum disease. There's a reason science is rigorous.
    - dlss 13y ago
      I feel like this effect is diminished when you're brushing your teeth in front of a researcher. Also, don't forget that the NEW STYLE BRUSH you mention is more likely to be improperly used.
  - nsxwolf 13y ago
    One important aspect of tooth brushing is gum stimulation, which is harder to measure than plaque removal.
  - tjic 13y ago
    > I'm not certain why you believe that you need to run double blind clinical trials on a tooth brush Double blind means that neither the researcher nor the subject knows which device the subject got. I don't think that this is possible (he said, with some understatement) when comparing a standard toothbrush to a bristly mouth guard thing.
    - dlss 13y ago
      Yeah, you don't need a double blind study here... Just measure the plaque levels before and after usage. As long as the plaque reductions are comparable, as well as the absolute final values, you're golden. Looks like the savings is about 6 days over 5 years (http://xkcd.com/1205/ http://xkcd.com/1205/). At a cost of $900 that's not a bad return on investment.
- methodin 13y ago
  I've been plagued with bad teeth all my life. No one ever taught me to know your teeth are clean, you just gotta figure it out. Who cares what toothbrush gets you there as long as it makes your life easier? It's not like it's a chemical.
pdx 13y ago
I'm very excited about this. The 6 second thing would be a Godsend for my 5 year old, who I spend 90 seconds every night brushing his teeth for him, trying to stave off more tooth decay on his teeth (bad teeth run in my family). I feel guilty about only doing 90 seconds, and he hates that we even do that long. This would be huge for our evening routine, and maybe for his long term tooth health (baby tooth health can effect adult tooth health) I'm disappointed at the $500/person price tag. ($300 plus dental impressions), but I'm still really thinking about this for him and for me.
- gph 13y ago
  I'm curious how long a kid could use one of these before needing to go get a new impression/print. Any dentists out there have a good estimate? I imagine it would only last them like 6 months at best. I can't see putting a kid through dental impressions that often even if the price tag dropped. For adults though this does sound exciting.
- novaleaf 13y ago
  for my 4 year old son, I brush his bottom teeth and count to 100, then brush his top teeth and count down to zero. maybe it's because i started this routine when he was 2, but he sits through it A-OK. no cavities yet, and i hope it helps him with numbers too.
  - GotAnyMegadeth 13y ago
    One of the parents at my school took a bullet for the rest of the team and let her son not brush his teeth. They became black, holey and disgusting, and I imagine quite painful. Everyone in school knew that that's what happened if you didn't brush your teeth. Worked on me and my brothers, and I remember the kids in my class boasting about how long they brushed their teeth for.
- tripzilch 13y ago
  > I'm disappointed at the $500/person price tag. Totally. That price seems to be based on a weird kind of "medical products should/can be expensive"-thinking. Also consider they priced the product at an equal amount of dollars or euros. Makes me think it's priced more towards what people might be willing to pay (and betting quite high) than as a function of its cost.
gnarbarian 13y ago
They act like that on almost every article. It's like an Entrepreneur's version of the "Player Haters Ball" Dave Chappelle sketch.
samstave 13y ago
this is perfect for small children who cannot brush their teeth that well.
bnegreve 13y ago
> What an awful way to encourage inventive people to follow their dreams and build new products for everyone. These attitudes kill entrepreneurship. How to provide useful feedback is a very serious problem. On the one hand, I agree that we are usually biased toward negative criticism, on the other hand overly positive feedback is exactly 0% useful. If people on HN have this kind of reaction, it's very likely that other people out there will also have this kind of reaction so as an entrepreneur, you really want to know real people's reaction so you can improve your pitch. So let's make sure that we provide constructive and encouraging feedback but let's also not refrain emotional reactions just because we want to encourage inventive people to follow their dreams and build new products for everyone. Otherwise, it's not feedback anymore.

gohrt 13y ago

Well there's this: > What about clinical studies? > Clinical studies will be published soon, showing the same > dramatic improvements in plaque-removal and overall oral > hygiene that our inhouse testing and usage by > our first customers have already been showing. That's not quite how science works. But it's nice to see engineering geeks getting into the medical quackery business. Also: > It lasts 1 year - you receive a refurbished one (professionally cleaned and all bristles brandnew) for 89. So it's even more expensive to maintain than an electric toothbrush, which can also be shared among multiple users with different bristle heads.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- DanBC 13y ago
  Bob brushes more carefully with NEW STYLE BRUSH than he does with OLD STYLE BRUSH, thus leading people to think that the new brush is better. When actually, it isn't, because it misses the gum line and doesn't help prevent gum disease. Thus, the population using the new brush has more fillings, extractions, deaths from surgery, and deaths from heart disease associated with gum disease. There's a reason science is rigorous.
  - dlss 13y ago
    I feel like this effect is diminished when you're brushing your teeth in front of a researcher. Also, don't forget that the NEW STYLE BRUSH you mention is more likely to be improperly used.
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  One important aspect of tooth brushing is gum stimulation, which is harder to measure than plaque removal.
- tjic 13y ago
  > I'm not certain why you believe that you need to run double blind clinical trials on a tooth brush Double blind means that neither the researcher nor the subject knows which device the subject got. I don't think that this is possible (he said, with some understatement) when comparing a standard toothbrush to a bristly mouth guard thing.
  - dlss 13y ago
    Yeah, you don't need a double blind study here... Just measure the plaque levels before and after usage. As long as the plaque reductions are comparable, as well as the absolute final values, you're golden. Looks like the savings is about 6 days over 5 years (http://xkcd.com/1205/ http://xkcd.com/1205/). At a cost of $900 that's not a bad return on investment.
methodin 13y ago
I've been plagued with bad teeth all my life. No one ever taught me to know your teeth are clean, you just gotta figure it out. Who cares what toothbrush gets you there as long as it makes your life easier? It's not like it's a chemical.

pdx 13y ago

I'm very excited about this. The 6 second thing would be a Godsend for my 5 year old, who I spend 90 seconds every night brushing his teeth for him, trying to stave off more tooth decay on his teeth (bad teeth run in my family). I feel guilty about only doing 90 seconds, and he hates that we even do that long. This would be huge for our evening routine, and maybe for his long term tooth health (baby tooth health can effect adult tooth health) I'm disappointed at the $500/person price tag. ($300 plus dental impressions), but I'm still really thinking about this for him and for me.

gph 13y ago
I'm curious how long a kid could use one of these before needing to go get a new impression/print. Any dentists out there have a good estimate? I imagine it would only last them like 6 months at best. I can't see putting a kid through dental impressions that often even if the price tag dropped. For adults though this does sound exciting.
novaleaf 13y ago
for my 4 year old son, I brush his bottom teeth and count to 100, then brush his top teeth and count down to zero. maybe it's because i started this routine when he was 2, but he sits through it A-OK. no cavities yet, and i hope it helps him with numbers too.
- GotAnyMegadeth 13y ago
  One of the parents at my school took a bullet for the rest of the team and let her son not brush his teeth. They became black, holey and disgusting, and I imagine quite painful. Everyone in school knew that that's what happened if you didn't brush your teeth. Worked on me and my brothers, and I remember the kids in my class boasting about how long they brushed their teeth for.
tripzilch 13y ago
> I'm disappointed at the $500/person price tag. Totally. That price seems to be based on a weird kind of "medical products should/can be expensive"-thinking. Also consider they priced the product at an equal amount of dollars or euros. Makes me think it's priced more towards what people might be willing to pay (and betting quite high) than as a function of its cost.

gnarbarian 13y ago

They act like that on almost every article. It's like an Entrepreneur's version of the "Player Haters Ball" Dave Chappelle sketch.

samstave 13y ago

this is perfect for small children who cannot brush their teeth that well.

bnegreve 13y ago

> What an awful way to encourage inventive people to follow their dreams and build new products for everyone. These attitudes kill entrepreneurship. How to provide useful feedback is a very serious problem. On the one hand, I agree that we are usually biased toward negative criticism, on the other hand overly positive feedback is exactly 0% useful. If people on HN have this kind of reaction, it's very likely that other people out there will also have this kind of reaction so as an entrepreneur, you really want to know real people's reaction so you can improve your pitch. So let's make sure that we provide constructive and encouraging feedback but let's also not refrain emotional reactions just because we want to encourage inventive people to follow their dreams and build new products for everyone. Otherwise, it's not feedback anymore.