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Parenting

This gaming toothbrush will actually make your kids want to brush their teeth

This app and toothbrush make a game out of fighting plaque.

Make toothbrush time less of a struggle with this AR game for kids Credit: Kolibree

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If your young child is anything like mine, toothbrushing time can be a real struggle. I’d gladly welcome anything that could build good brushing habits. Enter the Magik from Kolibree, a simple toothbrush that works with your smartphone to gamify the brushing experience using a fun AR interface.

If the name Kolibree sounds familiar, those are the folks that brought you to first “connected toothbrush“ a few years ago. Why would anyone need a connected toothbrush? Well, a few years ago that seemed like a logical question. But in today's all-things-connected landscape, the real question is "Can they do it better than the next guy?"

More to the point, the Magik toothbrush solves a real pain point. For many kids, brushing teeth is tedious work done poorly. Making a game out of brushing changes the dynamic.

Using the Magik app, you just point the camera at your kid's face and the AR weirdness takes over. Little monsters appear on a set of cartoon teeth. Whichever teeth the monsters appear on, those are the teeth you have to brush in real life. It's a simple, silly concept that worked fairly well when I demo'd it.

Thankfully, the brush itself has no tech built into it—no WiFi or Bluetooth. Rather, your phone's camera tracks the movement of the toothbrush, specifically that big, knobbly bit at the end. That means that the brushes will be cheaper to replace other "smart" brushes (likely under $35). Unfortunately, it also means you can't use just any old brush.

$35 a pop for toothbrushes that last just 3-4 months is steep, but it's easy to imagine buying just two or three of them to instill proper habits, and then transitioning to something cheaper. I look forward to giving this a proper testing with a certain three-year-old I know soon.

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