Health & Wellbeing

Goodwell open-source toothbrush is built to last a lifetime

Goodwell open-source toothbrush is built to last a lifetime
The Goodwell toothbrush is designed as a more eco-friendly way to brush your teeth
The Goodwell toothbrush is designed as a more eco-friendly way to brush your teeth
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The truly enduring component of Goodwell toothbrush is the medical-grade aluminum handle
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The truly enduring component of Goodwell toothbrush is the medical-grade aluminum handle
The truly enduring component of Goodwell toothbrush is the medical-grade aluminum handle
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The truly enduring component of Goodwell toothbrush is the medical-grade aluminum handle
The toothbrush uses bristles made from biodegradable charcoal fibers, while the flossing and tongue scraping attachments are made from polished bamboo composite
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The toothbrush uses bristles made from biodegradable charcoal fibers, while the flossing and tongue scraping attachments are made from polished bamboo composite
Equipped with a microcontroller and 3-axis accelerometer, the tracking component is designed to keep tabs on one's oral hygiene and present it through a website or mobile app
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Equipped with a microcontroller and 3-axis accelerometer, the tracking component is designed to keep tabs on one's oral hygiene and present it through a website or mobile app
Equipped with a microcontroller and 3-axis accelerometer, the tracking component is designed to keep tabs on one's oral hygiene and present it through a website or mobile app
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Equipped with a microcontroller and 3-axis accelerometer, the tracking component is designed to keep tabs on one's oral hygiene and present it through a website or mobile app
The Goodwell toothbrush unscrews at the bottom, enabling users to store toothpicks, aspirins or other bits and pieces inside the handle
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The Goodwell toothbrush unscrews at the bottom, enabling users to store toothpicks, aspirins or other bits and pieces inside the handle
The toothbrush uses bristles made from biodegradable charcoal fibers, while the flossing and tongue scraping attachments are made from polished bamboo composite
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The toothbrush uses bristles made from biodegradable charcoal fibers, while the flossing and tongue scraping attachments are made from polished bamboo composite
The toothbrush uses bristles made from biodegradable charcoal fibers, while the flossing and tongue scraping attachments are made from polished bamboo composite
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The toothbrush uses bristles made from biodegradable charcoal fibers, while the flossing and tongue scraping attachments are made from polished bamboo composite
The Goodwell toothbrush is designed as a more eco-friendly way to brush your teeth
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The Goodwell toothbrush is designed as a more eco-friendly way to brush your teeth
Packages start at US$59 for a toothbrush only, while the premium kits with flosser, tongue scraper and carry case are priced at $79
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Packages start at US$59 for a toothbrush only, while the premium kits with flosser, tongue scraper and carry case are priced at $79
View gallery - 10 images

If we assume everybody is acting on the advice of their dentist and replacing their toothbrush every few months, then there's likely a lot of frayed bristles laying in landfill right now. But must our dental care devices take on such as short lifespan? The Goodwell open-source toothbrush is a modern take on oral hygiene, built from eco-friendly materials and made to last until you haven't got any teeth left to brush.

The truly enduring component of the Goodwell toothbrush is the medical-grade aluminum handle. This combines with interchangeable, eco-friendly attachments to make up an environmentally friendly "toothkit."

The toothbrush uses bristles made from biodegradable charcoal fibers, while the flossing and tongue scraping attachments are made from polished bamboo composite. This means they can be tossed in the compost rather than the trash can once you're done with them. An optional subscription service sees replacements shipped out to users each month.

The toothbrush uses bristles made from biodegradable charcoal fibers, while the flossing and tongue scraping attachments are made from polished bamboo composite
The toothbrush uses bristles made from biodegradable charcoal fibers, while the flossing and tongue scraping attachments are made from polished bamboo composite

The Goodwell toothbrush unscrews at the bottom, enabling users to store toothpicks, aspirin or other bits and pieces inside the handle. In a tip of the hat to the many smart toothbrushes already on the market, this storage space can also play home to a data tracker. Equipped with a microcontroller and 3-axis accelerometer, this component is designed to keep tabs on one's oral hygiene and present it through a website or mobile app, though this won't be available until at least spring 2015 (Northern Hemisphere).

The company has made the device open-source, releasing CAD data in hope that users will develop their own ideas for attachments. This extends to the data tracker in anticipation of software engineers creating third party apps for the toothbrush.

Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, the Goodwell is now available for preorder. Packages start at US$59 for a toothbrush only, while the premium kits with flosser, tongue scraper and carry case are priced at $79. A one year subscription costs $79.

Source: The Goodwell Company

View gallery - 10 images
6 comments
6 comments
xs400
Thoroughly disappointed. You mean it's the "give away the razor for free and get them on the blades" kind of "lasts a lifetime". And "open source"! I had such high hopes!
I was hoping for a kind of self renewing (healing?) toothbrush that would miraculously (OK, applying the latest in science and technology) become as good as new when put in boiling water for 3 minutes. After all, only the bristles go out of shape (flower) and DuPont bristles (according to blurb on my toothbrush pack) last longer without flowering. So, I'm sure DuPont has discovered special bristle materials that will not flower at all; and - Conspiracy Theory here - does not want to release this to the public for fear of bringing down its bottom line.
Monthly plan?? Apps??!! ROFL.
Joris van den Heuvel
@xs400: I was also hoping for a good product, instead of a clever marketing campaign and some 21st century buzz words. Oh well.
But... subscription based toothbrushes? For $79 a year? Instead of 4 supermarket toothbrushes for $2-3 a piece?
wle
right $80 a year for toothbrushes
current cost is about $10 NOT
all this baloney just to avoid throwing away a plastic handle
plus this ignores electric toothbrushes which work better - AND the replaceable part is tiny and cheap
wle
Mindbreaker
Yep, total letdown. This is going to waste more energy in transit than anything they are saving. And the squandered money...idiotic. This thing will only appeal to people who can't stand to buy anything cheap and are buying $20 drinking water, and other nonsense to deceive themselves that they are better than people on the other side of town. However, I can't imagine any of those people buying a black-bristled toothbrush that someone else in the household might have used for their shoe polish or who knows what. Ink pranks would definitely abound. More likely, it would appeal to people who want to hide their recreational drugs.
Rustgecko
Nick I am sorry but this is a bit of a scam. My electric toothbrush heads cost me less than this, and gives premium tooth brushing. Your articles are often good, but this is a decent article written about a poor product. To quote an advertising aphorism "You cannot polish pooh."
Dr D
Don't worry about the cost ALL the current literature suggest that manual brushes are inferior to mechanical or sonic brushes by leaps and bounds. Something like mechanical are 200% better then manual or something like that. For $80 why would someone by a manual brush simply to be ecological at the expense of their own oral health? I was also hoping for some high tech brush that maybe only needed bristle replacements or something but "Medical grade aluminum" ???? Since when does this even exist? The most disappointing part is they actually convinced $17K dollars worth of supporters to ignore their teeth to support this project. I LOVE the idea of different heads tongue scraper flosser brush that was brilliant and I can't understand why Phillips and Crest/Oral-B haven't done so already but this one is purely "strange"