People have been conscious of the need for dental hygiene, for centuries, if not millennia, with the practice evolving from chew twigs and horsehair brushes to the synthetic brushes, floss of Today. However, the core of oral hygiene has remained the same since practically the beginning- get your teeth clean. Fast forward from the flossing with grasses of Yesteryear, and here we are with relatively durable brushes, and for the past few decades, that has worked just fine. We seem to have even reached the summit as far as mouth-cleaning innovations go, as anyone who care for their oral health can maintain it quite sufficiently with Today’s tools. Though the industry has clearly fulfilled its purpose, however, companies such as oral-B and Crest continue to “innovate” on an unbroken product to make it more effective- obviously I’m referring to the absolutely unnecessary, will-you-get-suckered-into-buying-this, accomplishment of the $100+ “super toothbrushes,” such as oral-B’s Triumph line, which sells off of features such as “9000 oscillations per minute” and “3D clean guaranteed!,” (what the hell does that even mean?) and comes with packed-in features such as a pressure sensor, which sends an electronic signal from toothbrush, through your brain, and back to the brush’s base to let you know that you are pressing “too hard.” Fantastic. Except, turns out, there’s really no benefit to electric toothbrushes for those without arthritis that can’t move a manual brush effectively: “‘If someone is doing… well with a manual brush and not having any problems with plaque…, there is little to gain from switching to an electric toothbrush,'” says Dr. Peter Alldritt^1. And yet, oral-B and co continue to “innovate” (by continually introducing higher price tags?), and people continue to buy into it. Case and point- when do people start thinking for themselves? Because when else will companies stop making society look so incredibly dense.

1: http://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2012/02/15/3430307.htm