Dyson doesn’t do things by halves. When it comes to entering a new sector, the company is famed for its all-out, complete immersion in every facet of the existing technology, exploring which angles and aspects can be improved and enhanced – a substantial chunk of the company’s Malmesbury HQ is given over to top secret R&D. Sometimes all that effort ultimately comes to nothing, such the half-billion-pound investment in the Dyson electric SUV.
The new Dyson CameraJet Toothbrush
The new Dyson CameraJet Toothbrush
Other times, the product makes it to market with high hopes of disrupting the status quo and shifting an entire industry’s technological focus and direction, as it famously did with the bagless vacuum cleaner. Now Dyson has unveiled a new fixation, an oral one to be precise.
This is the Dyson CameraJet, an electric toothbrush that goes above, beyond and deep into the crevices to deliver the kind of dental do-over that one would normally only get from a professional.
As the name suggests, the CameraJet comes with a component that – to our knowledge – has never found its way into a toothbrush before. Dyson has developed a miniature camera system that’s been trained up on nearly half a million dental images to work alongside the integral water jet; the latter streams a floss-like ribbon of high-pressure mouthrinse of water into the gaps between your teeth, thanks to a carefully trained algorithm (‘Gap Optical Targeting’, in Dyson tooth speak).
The new Dyson CameraJet Toothbrush
The result is a home plaque removal kit, one that targets the oft overlooked interdental spaces. According to Dyson’s own research – and the company has spent six years working on this toothbrush – ‘nine in ten people do not floss as regularly as they should and, on average, people spend just 45 seconds brushing, which is well below the two-minute guideline’. Dyson hopes the liquid flossing system they’ve developed will banish this blind spot and improve dental health for all.
Sir James Dyson and Dyson CameraJet Toothbrush
According to James Dyson himself, ‘flossing is an awkward and time-consuming chore. Few of us do it even though we know we should. Dyson engineers and scientists have spent well over a decade understanding oral care regimes and how nasties build up in the mouth. Our research has shown that people consistently miss the areas where plaque forms: the gaps between teeth.’
The CameraJet is therefore intended to be the ultimate toothcare system; in grand Dyson style, the problem has been tackled with the development and implementation of unique technology. ‘By combining a camera, machine learning, precision fluid dynamics, advanced brushing technologies, connectivity and WiFi, Dyson CameraJet introduces an entirely new way to keep your mouth healthy,’ James Dyson continues.
Other innovations include a new way of moving the toothbrush head - variable sonic oscillation –as well as the carefully shaped conical jet of liquid that shoots out below the head, which involved fluid dynamicists obsessively finding the best way to remove plaque, even developing their own ‘proxy plaque’ in collaboration with the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Dentistry.
All this obsessive attention to detail comes at a cost, technological as well as monetary. For example, not only are the RFID-equipped toothbrush heads bespoke and not compatible with other leading brands, but Dyson would also rather you used its own specially developed toothpaste and mouthrinse, both formulated for use with the system, using a non-SLS toothpaste (ie, non-foaming) so as to keep the camera view clear. Each is available in two flavours, Ginger Mint and Spearmint.
Dyson's own-brand toothpaste
While toothpaste goes on the brush, the mouthrinse needs to go into the CameraJet itself, requiring another round of engineering investigations. The end result is a small 12.5ml mouthrinse tank equipped with a diaphragm pump – this ensures that exactly the right amount of mouthrinse for each squirt is dispensed, even if the toothbrush is being held at an awkward angle.
The Dyson CameraJet comes with a docking and refill station
All of this is managed via a bespoke charging dock that fills the reservoir in addition to charging, while a separate travel case is also supplied. Although it’s not the first electric toothbrush to have WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, the CameraJet’s party trick is undoubtedly the dentist’s-eye view you can access over the phone through the MyDyson app. The more odontophobic among you might not want to check out the livestream from the integrated 100k pixel macro lens camera in real time (28 live images every second).
See inside your mouth in real time as you brush
We haven’t had the pleasure of trying out the toothbrush in a real human mouth, but a quick play on a spookily disengaged model set of teeth showcased its ability to punch the water jets into precisely the right spot. An expensive outlay, for sure, but it quickly becomes cheaper than a weekly visit to the hygienist. And like all tech-driven health and self-care devices, the gamification aspect could quickly become addictive.
Dyson Dental System, £419.99, available in Ceramic Ultra Blue and Ceramic Pink. Includes Dyson CameraJet Toothbrush, charging dock, travel case, Dyson Toothpaste and Dyson Mouthrinse, Dyson.co.uk, @Dyson