Gamification of teeth brushing | Hacker News Reader

Gamification of teeth brushing

playbrush.io

30 pointspelumi25 comments

I've got an electric toothbrush that already has a really simple form of 'gamification'. You're supposed to brush each of the four 'quadrants' of your teeth for 30 seconds, after 30 seconds the brush starts to buzz a little bit, reminding you to switch quadrants.

It sounds pretty stupid, but i was surprised how well it actually works. When i'm brushing my teeth with an 'ordinary' brush i tend to miss the automatic buzzing :)

You can get those toothbrushes for kids that play songs through the bristles. I've heard of parents teaching their kids that certain verses and phrases mean to switch to a certain brushing style and position, and they have to keep brushing until the song ends.

Another invention I originally scoffed at, but now just wish I'd come up with...

I have that same toothbrush. When I have to use a regular toothbrush, I feel very self-conscious that I'm probably not brushing as long as I would be if I were using the electric one.

I like to make a game of seeing whether I can do other tasks in the time it takes me to brush my teeth. Can I make cinnamon toast while brushing my teeth in under two minutes?

I'd like to see some actual data to back up the idea that 30 seconds a side is enough, as everyone's mouth and eating habits are different. I appreciate how nice it is to be able to say "brushing takes 2 minutes...ALWAYS", but that just seems too simple to actually be the case. I'd like to see a study done to compare mouth cleanliness of those who use a brush with the 30 second per quadrant buzzing and those without.

I both love this and hate it at the same time.

As a father of three I recognize how hard it is to get kids to do the stuff they are supposed to and that is good for them without hovering over them or just forcing them to do it. Anything that makes good habits easier is a win in my book.

At the same time, if we gamify everything that takes willpower, even the good for us stuff, then we slowly chip away at the ability to be internally motivated when there is no immediate benefit/reward.

I also recognize that minimizing ego depletion [1] across the spectrum throughout the day could make it easier to make better decisions - a big thing for kids behavior actually.

My guess is that this is a net gain overall, but I am concerned slightly that hacking motivation/willpower might have some drawbacks that we don't see yet.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion

Oh I think we see it already xp.

Good point. re: drawbacks- what about creating a reliance on the game itself? If the game is removed, will the kid stop brushing their teeth?

Well, this is the point. If we do things because we have added in a "game" feature, then will we stop doing those things if/when the game is removed from it?

Gamifying good behavior is just the latest form of "Nudge theory" which applies positive feedback or design elements to guide users toward a specific action. I think in an of itself is not a bad thing but has had some criticisms [1].

[1] www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_scientist/2011/11/does_nudge_policy_work_a_critique_of_sunstein_and_thaler_.html

My thoughts go in the same direction. But in my opinion gamification is more problematic than you described it. There are just too many tasks we have to do regardless of getting rewarded or not.

The other problem is, the more we gamify our world, the higher the reward must be to keep us happy or challenged. Then "offline" activities like meeting friends are not exiting and rewarding any more.

Appropriately enough, it uses Bluetooth...

The idea isn't new though, this just seems to be aimed at a younger demographic.

http://www.oralb.co.uk/en-GB/electric-toothbrush-with-blueto...

However, there's something about holding a toothbrush in one hand and a smartphone in the other that... just doesn't feel right to me.

Edit: gamification of toothbrushes for the young ones has been done before too:

http://www.usvigilant.com/rainbow/

I suppose the difference is what they use the data from the toothbrushes for. OralB produces pretty dashboards with the information while this is a game. I suppose this is closer to your rainbow example.

Another difference would be that this is not a toothbrush in itself so it can be used with multiple manual toothbrushes.

I would agree that holding the smartphone in the other hand is a bad idea. It would be better to prop it up against something or use one of the bathroom kits showed in the video on the page.

Getting kids to brush better can be fun and this product seems to hit that point very well. However, from my experience as a parent of an 8yo, phones and tablets around a basin of water for too long spells disaster. I don't want a product that would require me to hover over my kid while he's brushing his teeth.

Galaxy S5 has changed this equation for us.

My daughter knocked mine into a full bathtub with the only result being a funny sounding speaker for an afternoon. My wife dropped hers in the toilet, while holding our youngest, without issue. It has saved us quite a few times over the year - definitely worth it.

There are bathroom kits to prevent damaging the smartphone. I think there is a video of it being used somewhere on the page too (The demo video)

Maybe unrelated with the product, but I think that the whole problematic of brushing your teeth is still a tabu on many environments (such as corporate). If you see someone brushing their teeth after a meal, chances are you will be looked jokingly and a joke about it is going to fall on your lap. Now imagine that on bathrooms we could have something that would tell everyone that "washing your teeth is cool!". Like having tooth paste available, just like soap. Better yet, if there is a critical mass of people in the company that washes their teeth, than the whole company might start doing it! It kind of sucks that you have to feel like a criminal when you wash your teeth and people are just passing by with judgmental looks.

This one works great with my daughter. The light flashes for a minute

http://www.amazon.com/Toothbrush-Star-Flash-Light-color/dp/B...

That's neat. Nice price too

Possibly inspired by Jesse Schell's fantastic DICE2010 talk:

https://youtu.be/9NzFCfZMBkU?t=2m15s

Interesting talk. Love the multiple examples of the same concept!

They need a bonus level for flossing.

Every kid is different, but brushing teeth has never been a huge problem for my kids. However, getting them to floss is pure hell.

First, there is no way I'm going to put my several hundred dollar smart phone/tablet on the sink, especially with my not exactly neat or careful 7 year old.

Second, this won't fit on his Sonicare. It already has a timer and plays musical notes though, so I don't see that we would want this anyway.

Looks very similar to this hackathon idea… http://www.oxfordshirebusinesssupport.co.uk/news/2014/novemb...

toothbrush flappy bird?

I gamified my brushing too, by combining it with leg exercises. I do one leg quarter squats, 30 per leg per mouth quadrant. I started with only calf raises, but that got boring quick.

I just want a toothbrush that doesn't break Very Soon after warranty ends. No games, thank you.

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