Watch Your Mouth: Toothbrush Keeps an Eye on Cavities

We all know how important brushing is for healthy teeth, but it’s not easy to know if you’re brushing as well as you should. The Tooth Guardian concept integrates a tiny camera into a toothbrush to let you see exactly what’s going on with your pearly whites.

Designed by Yu-Hsin Lin, Chu-Che Chang and Shang-Hsuan Lu, the Tooth Guardian is a conceptual design that would help cut down on dentist visits by giving you a good look at potential problem areas. You can see where plaque is starting to build up and even catch cavities when they’re still small.

There’s a small LED on the head of the toothbrush to illuminate your mouth, and the tiny closed-circuit camera projects images from your pie hole right onto your bathroom mirror. After you’re done brushing, a UV light sterilizes the whole operation. It’s hard to see how the camera wouldn’t become completely covered with toothpaste during the course of brushing, but maybe the designers mean for users to give those chompers a toothpaste-free once-over with the camera after rinsing.

submit to reddit
See more in Unbuilt Concepts or under Technology. December, 2011.