BY KIM MILLER, RDH, BSDH
WHAT DOES LADY GAGA HAVE IN COMMON WITH ORAL HEALTH CARE?
Well, up until a couple of months ago, nothing! Enter the Lady Gaga Singing Toothbrush by Brush Buddies! This uniquely designed black-and-gold toothbrush features the songs “Born This Way” and “Bad Romance.” Each song plays for two minutes to support adequate brushing morning and night. This is the world’s first toothbrush to feature a black replaceable brush head with soft black bristles and a body encased in gold. Just in time for the holidays, this toothbrush would make a great gift for any Lady Gaga fan. Check this brush out; you have never seen or heard anything like it!
Brush Buddies also offers three Singing Justin Beiber Toothbrushes, a Justin Beiber Sonic Toothbrush (30,000 strokes a minute) and a Justin Beiber Oral Care line that includes floss and flossers, a standard toothbrush, a travel kit, and more — perfect for Justin Beiber fans! The singing toothbrushes are an entirely new category in oral care and have shown to improve brushing time by 73%. These brushes have been uniquely styled for each artist with their input.
In addition to singing toothbrushes, Brush Buddies has a line of talking toothbrushes suitable for younger patients. My favorite by far is ‘Swingin Sammy’ the monkey, one of five characters in the talking toothbrush line. Swingin’ Sammy and his pals are not just cute, they’re educational, encouraging kids to have healthy brushing habits. Once activated, the animated voice plays for two minutes, guiding kids to brush each section of their teeth starting with the upper and moving to the lower after a minute. The talking sequence ends by letting the child know they have done a great job! Sammy’s friends include: Bow Wow Brewster (dog), Wanda Whiskers (cat), Priscilla Piggles (pig) and Moo Reece (cow). They’re all adorable!
Brush Buddies are designed with an easy “for little hands” to grip handle, non-toxic plastic and they are bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalate-free. Brush Buddies has several other product offerings; you can check them out at www.brushbuddies.com.
LOOKING FORWARD TO PHOTODISINFECTION!
Photodisinfection offers a promising new adjunct to nonsurgical periodontal therapy — Periowave by Periowave Dental Technologies Inc.
It’s sold in Canada, Europe and Japan, and currently under FDA review for use in the United States. Periowave uses photodisinfection, essentially a non-antibiotic therapy that inactivates bacteria and toxins left behind after scaling and root planing.
The process is very pretty straightforward. Once SRP has been completed, a small amount of blue-colored photosensitizer viscous solution is placed in the diseased pocket(s). The photosensitizing molecules preferentially bind with gram-negative periopathogens and toxins. Once the site is illuminated with the handheld, cordless HHL-1000 non-thermal diode laser for 60 seconds, the photosensitizing agents are activated. As a result, reactive oxygen species (free radicals) attack the bacterial cell membranes, causing bacterial cell death. (Figure 4) During this process, toxins are also inactivated, resulting in an excellent environment for healing.
Over 70,000 treatments have been performed with Periowave with no serious adverse events. It’s been used safely with all types of restorative materials, including implants. Photodisinfection is painless and can be done immediately following each quadrant of SRP. Each treatment cycle is 60 seconds, however deeper pockets may require a second and third treatment. A follow-up treatment three to six weeks after the first treatment has shown to enhance long-term results, including reduction or elimination of bleeding on probing, reduced inflammation, improvement of gingival texture and tone, reduction of pocket depth, and a gain in clinical attachment levels.
This is definitely a technology to keep your eye on. To read case studies, pre-clinical and clinical results, as well as patient and clinician testimonials., visit www.periowave.com.
As always, email me with your favorite products for review, or send me names of products you would like to see featured at [email protected]. RDH
KIM MILLER, RDH, BSDH, is the co-founder of PerioFrogz.com, an information- based website providing free current oralsystemic research summaries and patient education downloads. Kim is also a coach with Inspired Hygiene, delivering customized hands-on training. She speaks internationally, writes writes articles and webinars, and enjoys clinical dental hygiene. Kim lives in Arizona
and welcomes you to contact her at kimmillerkrm@ gmail.com.
Past RDH Issues
