Oral B Introduces 'Smart Series' Connected Toothbrush

Oral B, a brand you likely interact with a few times a day (or at least should!), have released their Smart Series Electric Toothbrush. Claiming it's the first of its kind, Oral B's smart toothbrush uses Bluetooth 4.0 to communicate with an accompanying smartphone app. The goal is to get us brushing smarter, or as Oral B puts it, to "improve brushing efficiency".

Like we are starting to do with fitness and other wearables that track our habits, Oral B's Smart Series brush wants to track and monitor your brushing habits. Available today in the UK, the brush comes just ahead of the iOS app, which comes available in May. Oral-B Smile Director, Dr Uchenna Okoye, says "the Oral-B Smart Series is the first device that will enable Britons to personalise and track their brushing habits to help improve oral health, which is really exciting."

According to research from Oral B, about 25% of Britons don't brush properly, with almost 33% not brushing twice daily as recommended (I'm supposed to make a dated 'bad British teeth' joke her, but I digress...). Dr. Okoye says "The small changes this new toothbrush encourages will help generate big changes in British brushing habits", which sound like a needed and positive step forward. The brush itself has six modes — daily clean, deep clean, whitening, gum care , sensitive, tongue cleaning — to make sure you have a whole-mouth cleaning experience.

The app and brush work hand-in-hand, too. You can program the brush with the app to focus on particular areas of cleaning, and Oral B sees a day when patients work with Dentists on a cleaning routine with data culled from your toothbrush into the app. We don't have information on when this will hit the US or other countries (if at all), but the iOS app should come available shortly. Android fans will have to wait for August to see their accompanying app.