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Comment by charles_f | Hacker News Reader

I kind hoped the conclusion would be that you could unlock hidden features in the brush head, increase the torque and reset the head so that you don't have to replace it.

But alternatively, since the head has an NFC tag, could you use it for stuff like a partnership with Marriott (open your hotel door with your toothbrush, so much convenience) or with transit companies to charge your monthly transit pass?

Possibilities of an NFC-enabled toothbrush head are infinite. The future truly is fascinating.

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Right!?! NSFW features like the Oral-B brush has, where you can order a special brush that helps you relieve certain stress in the bedroom. With the modified Sonicare firmware, the brush won't stop after 2 minutes but keeps "brushing" until, well, you're 'done'...

Reminds me of the time I bought a lamp plug-in dimmer on Amazon, and I noticed that my "personal massager" was one of the "frequently bought with" items.

My wife and I had a lot of fun that night! Turns out the "personal massagers" work a lot better that way.

Wait, personal massagers are generally battery operated. How does this work with a plug in lamp dimmer.

The Orginal Magic Wand™

Because it plugs in to a wall outlet.

At full speed they overheat after 20 minutes or so.

The toothbrush doesn't force you to change the head. You can brush your teeth with an old head as much as you want.

Yeah but if you could reset the head instead of having to change it, imagine the savings

All it saves is a light blinking at you. A bit of electrical tape will also solve that problem.

I have this brush and would highly encourage you to swap the head when the brush asks you to do so, for the sake of your dental health.

I have it as well and at this point used the same head for 5 months. There's no visible deterioration and I exceed the recommended brushing time by doing 5 instead of 3 minutes. Why exactly is the head only good for 3 months?

Brushing your teeth for too long can have bad effects on your dental health[1][2]. The heads loose their strength over time and if you replace that with pushing harder, you might also overbrush.

[1]: https://www.colgate.com/en-us/oral-health/brushing-and-floss... [2]: https://riverrundentalspa.com/brush-teeth-too-long/

You probably don't brush correctly: you need to apply sufficient pressure on your teeth so the bristles can scrub the enamel well enough. Or else there is no way your head has no visible deterioration after 5 months at 5 min per brushing.

The toothbrush has an integrated pressure sensor and starts vibrating when you apply too much

Then I don't believe you have no visible deterioration.

The brushes have this sensor for a reason. Too much pressure may harm your gum. The article talks about a ultrasound brush, no pressure required.

It's not only a matter of aesthetics but bacteria etc. Your brush head collects a sh*tload of food waste (which you don't see with your eyes) and remains a bit wet after usage. Perfect substrate for some living organisms. If you have a microscope, feel free to have a closer look.

If you reset it, it's as good as new, right?

I would question your priorities if you're trying to save on $4 heads for a $90 toothbrush.

There's a $35 edition of that toothbrush today, I got a similar one at $25 (iirc) on some Black Friday. $10 heads are an issue when $5 toothbrushes exist.

I would question your priorities if you're paying more than a couple of bucks on a toothbrush in the first place.

My priorities are: Not wanting fillings.

The difference between using a tongue brush and an electric toothbrush (vs just manual brushing with and without a tongue brush) was so stark that I've never for a moment felt like £40 for a toothbrush with an annual cost of £11.20 for toothbrush heads has ever not been worth it.

Mine doesn’t just blink; it keeps doing this annoying fast vibrate/noise whenever I stop brushing. So I was reading the article really hoping for an easy jailbreak at the end.

My Sonicare does this fast vibrate when I need to charge the brush.

From the sounds of it, three wrong password attempts (from a phone or similar) could accomplish this? That should stop the toothbrush from being able to add extra time to the head

I would guess that it would probably stop working altogether, if it cannot write in the brush head?

Or bump the head into a tag reader and have Home Assistant do anything from ordering new heads to flashing your Hue lights after 2 min of brushing.

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