Combining Oral Hygiene with IoT

Combining Oral Hygiene with IoT

London based product development firm and our design development partner, Innovation Developments, has joined forces with a new oral health brand, Dentii, to form a disruptive force in the way the dental industry performs for both dentists and consumers, seamlessly connecting the hardware to the output of useful data for the betterment of an individual’s oral hygiene.

The team faced the difficult challenge of taking a design that had been created by a separate company and assessing it in terms of business potential. “The concept did have some interesting features and fitted into the existing market but the more we explored, the more we felt that there was a larger opportunity” says InDev Managing Director, David Fowler.

Extensive meetings with the client revealed the true potential of the idea and a risk managed strategic plan was created to help achieve the goal of building a global, competitive dental brand that delivers both quality and service to everyone.

The dental market is worth 37 billion USD* and yet very little has changed with regards to design and innovation over the last 50 years. The Essex based client explains, “By bringing together innovative technology, revolutionary design, fine materials and functionality, we provide a truly unique and exclusive cleaning experience.  It’s not just aesthetically pleasing but boasts ‘world first’ practical benefits. This innovation represents a new era of oral care products that will make a significant contribution to the global market that is set to grow 16% to 43 billion USD in the next five years.”

To bring the oral healthcare sector in line with other consumer brands such as Apple or Bang & Olufsen, the concept was broken down into the core drivers of required functionality and how to implement them. Using a series of sensors, coupled with a phone app, Dentii will enable customers to monitor their brushing habits and experience brushing feedback for how they can improve.

With the ever-popular trend of the Internet of Things (IoT) disrupting and fast-tracking consumer markets, data to product development is the new Bitcoin to finance. Having access to a wealth of oral health data could help to kick start a new generation of dental products by having a greater understanding of how people look after their teeth with information on brushing techniques, pressures, gum health, the list goes on. Having data captured not only from electric toothbrushes but also manual brushes, flossers and interdentals, it creates a completely traceable map of a user’s dental health in a way that has never been done before.

Not only would this benefit the consumer, but it could become an essential tool to aid dentists and dental practices in streamlining their services with greater visibility into the specifics of each individual patient.

Dentii is set to be available in early 2020, online and in dental practices across the UK.

Links

*Source:  Statista.com https://www.statista.com/statistics/326389/global-oral-care-market-size/