Most parents know that it isn’t always easy getting your child to brush their teeth every day. Either they say they did but the brush is dry, or they really did, but spent about 10 seconds on the job. This can be a process that goes on for days, trying to convince them how important this task really is for their daily routine. A company is looking to put an end to this by making the process entertaining for the child, turning each experience into a game.
Grush Gaming has a smart sonic toothbrush that syncs with a tablet or smartphone (Android or iOS), where kids can interact with a game on the screen while brushing. The brush is tracked throughout the mouth and is shown on the screen with virtual pair of teeth, highlighting each tooth while generating monsters and other activities for the kids to battle against (by brushing). It can tell where in the mouth the brush is, including behind the teeth, with minimal latency. Basically, imagine how a motion controller works for something like Playstation VR or the Oculus Rift (the toothbrush is pretty much doing the same thing). It even makes sure everything falls within the recommended two-minute brush time so that they get a full cleaning each time.
Profiles can be saved and tracked for each child, so not only can the child see on the screen how well they did (with a score to show how many monsters they brushed into oblivion), but parents can also look back at the results with feedback on how well the child attending to each tooth. It logs everything into a calendar with notifications to keep track of each event with (in other words, you get to spy on your kids even more than normal).
We ran into Grush at CES 2018 (Las Vegas) last month where we had a chance to discuss the toothbrush and see it in action. The wonderful thing was how accurate it was while brushing, and how useful something like that really is for raising kids. They even have an adult version of the brush (yes, it will work with the app as well, if you so require it to) coming out later in the year–although its main focus will simply be a sonic toothbrush (the app support is a bonus).
You can check out our interview here with Grush Gaming (CES 2018) where you can see the toothbrush in action like we did.
