Scrubbing our teeth with bristles on a stick is beyond outdated. It doesn’t solve the problem of flossing and is wide open to error of missing spots or scrubbing too hard and causing damage like I think I’m doing to my poor gums and none of it is necessary in a year with “thousand” in it’s calendar.
What we need to do is have molds of our mouth made every few months or however often our teeth and jaw bones shift and so that its just one deformed bar that we put in our mouth and bite a couple times to scrub the outer teeth and plunge into our gums at just the right depth and angles to be unharmful. That’s it. Just chomp chomp chomp and you’re done. Why isn’t this a thing yet? Why am I the one who has to save the world AND the problems of inefficient dentistry. Get with it, World.
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UPDATE in November 2013: BAM…
To ensure the best possible fit, a dentist will take a 3D image of the patient’s mouth. A reverse mold is created, and ultrasoft bristles are attached. To use it, bite and grind teeth on the toothbrush 15 times. It only takes 6 seconds, but is efficient enough that it could eliminate the need for flossing. Over the course of the year, it saves 55 hours of brushing time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukdV3aQc8jY Awesome. but so far, cost prohibitive…
Called the Blizzident, it is essentially a custom-made toothbrush that’s perfectly formed to the shape of your teeth. You go to your dentist, get a 3D scan of your mouth, and then upload the model to the Blizzident website. The company uses a 3D printer to create an inverse mold of your mouth, and then attaches “soft, ultrafine bristles” to the mold to turn it into a toothbrush. (See: What is 3D printing?) To brush your teeth, you apparently just insert the Blizzident and then bite and grind your teeth 15 times — which takes roughly six seconds. Because the toothbrush is so perfectly formed, and because there are so many bristles, it cleans your teeth perfectly. Rounding out the technical details, the Blizzident costs $300, and you’ll need to replace it every year ($160 for a new one, or $90 to have your current one refurbished with new bristles). Getting a scan from your dentist will probably cost between $100 and $200. To brush your teeth, you put toothpaste on your tongue, move it over your upper teeth, and then the act of biting and grinding will let the toothpaste flow over your lower teeth. The Blizzident apparently cleans your tongue, too, and the cleaning process (the Bass technique) is so perfect that you apparently don’t need to speed much time flossing. Blizzident is also usable by kids (but their teeth move around, so it’ll cost you dearly to get new molds made regularly).
Although I guess I should note that that is still less than my root canal I had to get a few years ago…
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