If you follow my HomeKit Weekly series, you know that I am a sucker for anything I can make “smart.” In my never-ending quest to have an app for everything in my house, I now have a Bluetooth enabled toothbrush from Quip. I’ve been using Quip for a couple of years after I heard a podcast ad for them, and now every member of my house is using one of them. I recently got an email about a new ‘motor’ for their existing toothbrushes that adds Bluetooth support, so I jumped on to add it.
If you aren’t familiar with Quip, let me get you up to speed. It’s a toothbrush that includes replaceable heads, a vibrating motor, and a battery. When you turn it on, it pulses every 30 seconds, letting you know to change quadrants in your mouth (top left, top right, etc.). I’ve found it to be a great toothbrush, and I love the recurring subscription option to get a new head, battery, and toothpaste every three months. I’ve even started using the Quip branded floss as well.
If you’re purchasing Quip today, you’ll have the option of buying a toothbrush with the Bluetooth motor built-in, but I had to swap out my existing motor to add it. Once it was inserted into the toothbrush, I had to pair it using the new Quip app. Once it’s paired, it’s an automatic process with syncing data over. I was worried I would need to manually open the app for data to sync after each brush, but it’s been the opposite. I rarely open the app right afterward, but it always seems to be immediately up to date.
You might be wondering, why would I want a smart toothbrush? The first thing it can track is the duration fo your brushing. The Quip toothbrush is designed to run for two minutes each time you brush, but since my kids also have Quip toothbrushes, once I upgrade theirs to the Bluetooth model, it would sync, and I could monitor their brushing habits. It also shows the coverage of time spent on the top and the bottom of your mouth, the numbers of strokes, and your brush’s overall intensity. You can view your brushing history to see weekly activity.
Along with the new toothbrush, Quip has rolled out a new rewards program. As you keep good brushing habits, you can redeem them for discounts over replacement brush heads, a $5 Target gift card, or other Quip accessories. It’s a fun way to stay on track with brushing habits. If you brush for two minutes in the morning, you get a point. If you brush for two minutes at bedtime, you’ll get two more points. If you brush for two minutes in the morning and evening for an entire week, you get five bonus points.
I’ve enjoyed monitoring my progress since I upgraded my toothbrush. It’s certainly kept me more accountable with brushing for the entire two minutes when I would usually cut it off before and only brush for a minute. I loved Quip before, but it’s a lot more fun now, and hey — it’s just fun to track the data. If you have cavities, you’ll be able to prove to your dentist that you kept good brushing habits. It has Apple Health integration as well.
