I stopped using a toothbrush to use this gadget instead – can it really clean my teeth in 10 seconds?
The Y-Brush is a toothbrush that looks more like a gumshield than a gnasher cleaner – but it promises to clean my teeth in 10 seconds
Here we are again, another one of these wild tests that I’ve been put up to. It’s safe to say that when I first found out I had to stop using my toothbrush, I was sceptical. But at least I’m not sticking needles into my arm this time, or trying to freeze my hand off! “Why ditch the electric toothbrush?”, you ask. That’s to use this newfangled gadget instead – the Y-Brush.
The Y-Brush has been at the CES tech show and on shelves for a few years now. Aside from looking more like a gumshield than something that’ll clean your pearly whites, it reckons it can slash the time it takes to clean your teeth to just 10 seconds. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.
And obviously the only way to tell how well this thing works is to shove it in my mouth. What I really want to know is can it really clean my teeth in just 10 seconds?
How does the Y-Brush work?
You know how toothbrushing goes, I don’t need to explain that to you. But we spend four minutes a day scrubbing our fangs with bristles in the name of personal hygiene. While I do enjoy having healthy gums, there’s got to be a faster way to do things. Enter the Y-Brush.
Most obviously, it doesn’t look like a toothbrush. In fact, it looks more like a gumshield. Stay with me here, it gets weirder. Rather than a head with bristles, the entire mouth piece is filled with nylon bristles. You’ll find 35000 of them, to be exact. They’re lined up to cover all of your teeth at once – the top, front, and back. The gumshield connects to a trapezoid-like device that houses all the internals. One big button controls the mode or turns it on. There’s a battery in here, the vibration motor, and a covered charging port (so the water doesn’t get in). It’s Micro-USB, unfortunately. Yes, those do still exist. Sigh.
Rather than spinning round, the Y-Brush vibrates. Hard. Not like that – get your mind out of the gutter! It vibrates probably twice as strongly as your smartphone does. What’s with all the shaking? To clean your teeth!
By vibrating, all of the bristles get to do the scrubbing motion on your teeth at once. Rather than focusing on just one area of your mouth, you can hit all of your gnashers at once. That’s how the Y-Brush promises to clean your teeth in a fraction of the time.
Can it really clean my teeth in 10 seconds?
When you go to use the Y-Brush, you have to essentially re-learn how to use a toothbrush. I never thought I’d say that before! Fortunately, the brand offers a pretty in-depth set of instructional videos that you can go through when you first get this next-gen toothbrush.
Since you’re brushing all your teeth at once, you need to apply toothpaste to the entire piece. Rather than letting you fumble around with a tube of Oral-B’s finest, Y-Brush includes a handy applicator. This somewhat phallic bit of rubber sits on the end of your toothpaste tube. It helps you evenly spread toothpaste around the entire Y-Brush. Beyond that, it’s pretty similar to prepping a normal toothbrush – rinse it before the toothpaste goes on, and again after.
Then it’s time to pop the contraption in your mouth. The Y-Brush sits over your teeth, and is big enough to fit most mouths. Don’t worry if it doesn’t perfectly cover your back teeth, we’ll get to that in a second. With the Y-Brush, you need to do the one thing every dentist tells you not to – bite down on your toothbrush.
To brush your teeth, you have to chew down on the Y-Brush mouth piece. This ensures the bristles are moving enough to clean, and get both the top and bottom part of your pearly whites. You start at the top of your mouth, then go down to your bottom row of teeth. As you brush, you move the toothbrush left and right, to make sure it cleans the very back corner of your mouth as well.
Here’s the real question: can it clean my teeth in the promised 10 seconds. Well, yes, and no. You see, Y-Brush recommends you clean the top and bottom row of fangs for 10 seconds each (which is the mode I use). And you don’t need a maths degree to work out that’s 20 seconds. There is a shorter 5 second mode, which would hit the promised 10 second cleaning time. These modes sit alongside a longer 15 second clean, and an unlimited clean that just keeps going.
Would I replace my toothbrush with the Y-Brush?
That’s a tough question. After using the Y-Brush for a few weeks, I’m now used to using it. While the button in the middle is a little stiff and complicated to learn (press for this, hold for that), it’s second-nature now. And I do love the fact I can clean my teeth a lot quicker, even if not quite as quickly as 10 seconds. That’s the reason I was interested in the first place!
But would I replace my toothbrush with the Y-Brush? My teeth feel clean. And they look it, too – just as white as after using my electric toothbrush. But my mouth doesn’t have the same fresh feeling as it does after using a normal toothbrush. Probably because toothpaste isn’t swirling all around. Nor can it clean my tongue. So I’m probably going to go with a combination. I’ll use a normal toothbrush to clean my tongue and give a more thorough scrub every now and again, and the Y-Brush most of the time. It’s great for getting ready in a pinch, that’s for sure.
Connor Jewiss
