Brushing one’s teeth effectively has all sorts of health benefits. Technique counts for a lot, though, and today’s invention attempts to encourage good practice.
It takes the form of an electric toothbrush, consisting of two conventional heads but mounted in the scissor arrangement shown. A reel of dental tape in the handle runs from the centre of one brush to the other (and is collected on another disposable reel).
The scissors are lightly sprung in the open position. The tape is moved along the surface of one’s teeth until it finds a gap into which it is then pushed. The ‘scissors’ are squeezed closed and brushing of the teeth and gums occurs on both sides at the same time, in a mostly gum-to-teeth direction, whilst flossing also takes place.
Each brush head would be slightly wider than normal so that brushing, centred on the inter-tooth gap, would simultaneously clean more than half the width of the teeth on either side (the floss between one’s teeth would limit the side-to-side rasping, which I seem to do unconsciously, as well as making it uncomfortable to scrub in the tooth-to-gum direction).
