Oral healthcare doesn’t often make the global news cycle, but earlier this week Dyson added a new gadget to its product lineup that inspired a flurry of headlines. And no, it’s not a mini vacuum for your teeth (although… Are you reading this Sir Dyson?). The engineering behemoth announced it would be adding an electric toothbrush to its high-tech offerings, called the CameraJet. Oh, and it costs $499.
For those whose feeds have not been inundated with details of this toothbrush this week: The CameraJet simultaneously brushes and flosses by emitting a fan-like spray of mouthwash (or water) directly into the gaps between your teeth as the brush head continuously oscillates. The flow of the liquid is not constant, however, as it usually is with a water flosser. Underneath the jet nestled underneath the brush head is a 100mm-pixel macro lens the size of a pencil tip that captures 28 images per second. Those images let the brush detect when it’s arrived at a space between your teeth and trigger the jet accordingly. You need to use a toothpaste and mouthwash (if you don’t use water) that are SLS-free because anything that foams up could interfere with the camera and make its gap-detection less precise. Dyson has also made their very own CameraJet-friendly toothpaste and mouth rinse (as they say in the UK), but they aren’t available just yet.
Last spring, we were the first to behold the CameraJet when Allure’s executive editor Jenny Bailly traveled to the company’s labs in southwest England and swore herself to secrecy. Dyson operates like the CIA or NSA in terms of its commitment to need-to-know-culture—until just before launch we were only referring to the CameraJet by code name in our communications with the brand. So we were unable to include independent expert opinions in our initial story because we had agreed not share any information about this device until it was announced to the public on September 1.
And when it was, people had a lot to say—especially on Dyson’s post announcing the launch. “For $500 it better take X-rays and straighten my hair,” one person commented, while another said, “oh great, another camera I’ll have to put tape over.” Several shared this sentiment: “Overstimulated but very intrigued.” Even Listerine weighed in on Instagram with their own post that read simply, “Friendly reminder: Listerine reaches your teeth, gums, tongue, cheeks, and everything in between to complete your oral care routine. No cameras. No fancy tech. Just a simple swish for a whole mouth clean.” (For the record, according to dentists, Listerine kills germs and freshens breath, but it’s an add-on not a replacement for brushing or flossing—either with water or a string.)
In the last couple of days, our feeds have been filled with content from non-dentist influencers who were gifted a toothbrush by Dyson, but our team as a whole has so far seen only one “I tried it” video from a dentist, a group that perhaps didn’t get the same level of seeding just yet. So this week—once the CameraJet was out of the bag—we called four dentists to get their thoughts on the most expensive toothbrush in the 5,000-year history of oral hygiene. None has received a toothbrush from Dyson to test (or decided to invest just yet) so they are speaking only from what they have seen and read about the device.
What are dentists saying about Dyson’s new CameraJet?
The dentists Allure spoke with were on the whole intrigued and/or impressed by the CameraJet. “Anything that can make patients more consistent with their oral hygiene gets my attention,” says Brian Kantor, DDS, a cosmetic dentist at Lowenberg, Lituchy & Kantor in New York City. “The idea of combining brushing and interdental cleaning into one routine makes a lot of sense, particularly because one of the biggest problems we see is that patients brush but don’t consistently floss.” Dr. Kantor won’t be recommending the CameraJet to his patients just yet though: “I want to see how it performs in the real world over time before I tell patients they need to go out and buy it.”
