Jared Spool wrote:
Then Dr. John's Products released a line of children's power
toothbrushes. (Subsequently acquired by Proctor & Gamble.) The battery
powered devices only have an On switch and automatically turn off after
3 minutes. The 3 minute run time forces the child to brush the entire
period.
To be pedantic, it forces the motor to run for 3 minutes. It certainly
doesn't weld itself to the child's hand, take over their neurons, and
force the toothbrush into the child's mouth.
Children who use the toothbrush regularly demonstrate
substantial better long-term oral health than children who don't.
The real question is: "why do they use it?"
Is it simply because the motor is on and it's fun? Because they know
how long to use it? If the former, is there a less environmentally
stressful way to make it fun? If the latter, would a simple egg timer
have worked just as well and saved on natural resources?
Sure, convincing kids to brush their teeth is something we can probably
all agree is good, but is making a battery powered toothbrush the right
way to go about it? What's the fully-loaded cost of that bit of kit
compared to a traditional toothbrush + a little parent/child education?
Would simply asking the parent to brush their teeth at the same time as
their child solve the problem while creating a positive parent-child
interaction?
--
J. Eric "jet" Townsend -- designer, fabricator, hacker
design: www.allartburns.org; hacking: www.flatline.net; HF: KG6ZVQ
PGP: 0xD0D8C2E8 AC9B 0A23 C61A 1B4A 27C5 F799 A681 3C11 D0D8 C2E8
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