Dyson Made a Toothbrush. But Is It Actually Worth the Hype?
Something massive happened in the world of dentistry last week.
Dyson revealed its brand-new toothbrush.
Yes. Dyson. The people who reinvented the vacuum cleaner, made fans without visible blades and somehow convinced us that a hairdryer could be a luxury purchase.
Now they’re coming for your bathroom cabinet.
And, unsurprisingly, the launch has been everywhere.
But is the toothbrush actually as revolutionary as the marketing campaign and influencer hype surrounding it?
Let’s unpack it.
First up: the handle
At first glance, it’s big.
The handle appears noticeably wider than your standard electric toothbrush and, with the additional technology incorporated into it, there seems to be quite a lot going on towards the top end.
That immediately makes me wonder about ergonomics and weight distribution.
Remember: the best toothbrush isn’t necessarily the one with the most technology packed inside it. It’s the one you can comfortably manoeuvre around every surface of every tooth, every day, twice a day.
Which brings me to one of the headline features…
The integrated water flosser
This sounds very cool.
If you never went to dental school.
Here’s the problem.
Dentists generally advise you to spit after brushing rather than rinsing with water, because we want the fluoride in your toothpaste to remain in contact with your teeth.
And water alone isn’t particularly good at removing the sticky bacterial biofilm — plaque — attached to your teeth.
That plaque isn’t simply loose food sitting there waiting to be washed away. Bacteria adhere to the tooth surface and organise themselves into a biofilm. Physically disrupting that biofilm is why brushing and interdental cleaning matter.
I could now write you an essay on plaque biofilms, fluoride concentration and remineralisation, but that’s not particularly website or reader-friendly.
If you genuinely want the geeky version, come and see me. I love this stuff.
Then there’s the camera
Another WOW feature.
Until you understand cameras.
The concept is undeniably clever: being able to see inside your own mouth while you’re brushing sounds incredibly futuristic.
My question is whether it remains useful once the novelty wears off.
In my experience, one of the biggest problems isn’t that people don’t have enough information while brushing. It’s getting people to spend the necessary time brushing carefully and consistently in the first place.
So if watching your own teeth on a screen makes you more engaged and encourages you to brush more thoroughly, fantastic.
But if we’re spending hundreds of pounds primarily to maintain our interest in brushing, we may be solving the wrong problem.
Technology can help. It can’t replace habits.
And now the bit I actually care about: the brush head
This is where things get interesting.
Because ultimately, this is the part that needs to clean your teeth and help protect your mouth from disease.
Everything else is secondary.
And Dyson has a very difficult problem here.
For all the engineering talent in the world, they still have to compete with something incredibly simple: Oral-B effectively invented — and patented — the “wheel” of electric toothbrushes with the oscillating-rotating round head, and then incorporated additional micro-vibration technology into its iO range.
And that is a very difficult wheel to reinvent.
Before anyone asks: no, I’m not sponsored by Oral-B and I don’t own shares in the company.
(Although Oral-B, if you’re reading this, please send more samples for my patients!)
And buy me a coffee.
I really wanted to believe
I genuinely want products like this to be brilliant.
I’ve been in dentistry for 21 years. I’ve spent far too much of my life reading papers, attending courses, looking at teeth and swimming around in the deep end of this weird and wonderful world.
I love it.
Which is great for you, because you get all of my digested, hard-earned scientific opinion for free on this website.
And despite my reservations about some of the features, there is one thing I think Dyson has done exceptionally well.
Dyson just made oral health interesting.
And that is massive.
A global technology company has launched a premium toothbrush and suddenly people are talking about brushing, plaque, flossing and their oral health.
I’ll take that as a win.
Because your mouth isn’t some completely separate part of your body that happens to contain teeth.
Oral and general health are interconnected, and researchers continue to investigate associations between oral diseases — particularly periodontal disease — and systemic conditions including cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline.
That doesn’t mean brushing your teeth prevents Alzheimer’s disease.
Science is more complicated than that.
But it does reinforce something I have believed for a very long time:
A healthy mouth is part of a healthy body.
So if Dyson gets another few thousand people thinking seriously about looking after their teeth, I’m here for it.
So… should you spend £400 on one?
Before throwing away your current toothbrush and buying dentistry’s latest technological wild card, I’d do three things.
First: sort out what happens between your teeth.
Before spending hundreds of pounds upgrading your toothbrush, spend a few pounds on some good interdental brushes or floss — and actually use them every day.
Not occasionally.
Not the night before your dental appointment.
Every day.
Call me if you want to know my favourites.
Second: find out what is actually happening in your mouth.
If it’s been a while since your last dental assessment, have a proper baseline check. Our bodies are very good at not telling us if we have active disease in our mouths until its too late.
- Are your gums healthy?
- Are you leaving plaque behind?
- Are there particular areas you’re consistently missing?
- Do you have early decay, recession, bleeding or periodontal disease?
There is very little point spending hundreds of pounds on technology without knowing what problem you’re trying to solve.
Your dentist or hygienist can also look at your brushing technique and tell you whether changing toothbrush would genuinely benefit you.
And finally: if I was writing my Christmas list…
Would I put a fancy electric toothbrush on it?
Absolutely.
I love a useful gift that lasts!
But I’d choose one because the evidence suggests that the bit touching my teeth actually works — not because the marketing campaign looks incredible.
If you want to know which toothbrush I’d currently spend my own money on, message us or book in at Revitalise Dental Centre.
You can even come and try one at our clinic before spending your money.
Because sometimes the latest technology really does change everything.
And sometimes…
someone has already invented the wheel.
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