High-Tech Tooth Brushing

The first true bristled toothbrush originated in China around 1600 AD. By the early 1800s they were in use throughout Europe and Japan. Americans apparently didn't catch on to the craze until after World War II, when the soldiers brought back the custom from Europe. Since then, not much has changed other than the fact that hand-power was surpassed by the electric toothbrush.

The electric toothbrush is giving birth to the electronic toothbrush. Now, I'm no dentist, so there's no way I'm going to debate the merits of electric vs. hand-power, but I can tell you that some of the new generation of toothbrushes do everything but play MP3s and make phone calls.

I've been brushing for the past few days with the new Oral-B Triumph with SmartGuide. It's a smart toothbrush that actually nags you to do the right thing. Sort of like living with your dentist looking over your shoulder (minus the flossing).

The Triumph communicates wirelessly via a transmitter to an external battery operated LCD display that you can stick on your bathroom mirror. The display looks like one of those running machine that shows you how many laps you're doing. Only these are laps of your mouth. It tells you how long to brush (two minutes) and can be set with a counter to tell you how much time to spend in each quadrant of your mouth. Like one of those massage chairs, you can cycle between movements: cleaning (it also has a sensitive cleaning), massaging, and polishing. Once I committed the inscrutable icon system to memory I had a blast switching gears. There are two types of brush heads, one for cleaning and one for polishing. Both look very much like those carwash brushes with a variety of bristles and rubber flaps. The toothbrush head talks to the toothbrush and tells it when it's old and time to be retired. A smiley appears on the display when you've finished your brushing routine. Using the Triumph is a bit like having a date with the toothbrush Nazi, but you feel incredibly clean-mouthed and virtuous after each use. The new Triumph with the SmartGuide will be in stores in September and costs about $150.

About a month ago, I got to play with the new and improved Philips Sonicare. For those you guilty of over- or under-squeezing the toothpaste tube, you can kiss it goodbye. The Sonicare IntelliClean squirts out liquid (Crest) toothpaste as it brushes.

Of course, anyone who has a Sonicare or any other electric toothbrush knows that you have about a one in five chance of ever getting the replacement brush head for your model in your local stores. I've got a cabinet full of mismatched brush heads, and when you buy them on the web you pay as much for shipping as you do for the head.

To keep your brushes from becoming bacteria filled hazmat areas, there's VIOlight. It emits a germicidal UV light that the company claims kills 99.9% of germs on your toothbrush or brush head in under 10 minutes.

Ultreo claims it goes beyond sonic by using ultrasonic waves. Ultrasonic waves have a frequency about 20,000 Hz as opposed to your everyday sonic with its frequency of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. The ultrasonic waves charge the bristle's millions of bubbles which clean the teeth.

Ellen Goodman, newspaper columnist, once lamented toothbrush overkill. She ended "Now I am sure that somewhere there is an engineer creating a toothbrush with an LCD, an MP3 player and the capacity to instant message from my mouth to yours. Beware, the feature creep is coming to a molar near you."

Truer words have never been spoken or the overwrought promises of the digital age? What do you think? Do high tech toothbrushes give you a better brush?