It seems that this idea has struck a chord with many people. Electric Toothbrushes are very popular but they need electricity to work. Although it’s true that electricity is readily available maybe you don’t have an electric socket in the bathroom where you need it.

You could of course take it camping with you or anywhere where there is no power. The clockwork toothbrush does away with the polluting battery and the charger and all the cables and complication that go with it. Batteries don’t last forever but wind up mechanics will last almost indefinitely.

One clever feature of the clockwork toothbrush is that when it is fully wound, it runs for two minutes. Dentists say that you should brush your teeth for a full two minutes but how do you know when the time is up? The clockwork toothbrush, not only does away with electricity and complexity but ensures that your teeth are properly brushed.

The action would be exactly the same as if the toothbrush were electric. There is no reason why a mechanical system couldn’t exactly replicate the same speed and frequency.

Another advantage is that it is never flat. A simple wind and it’s ready for use. It makes you wonder why they ever fitted batteries in the first place when there is a simpler less polluting way to do things.

The key on the toothbrush is really there as an aid to visualisation, in the production model it may be that all you need to do is twist the body for a few seconds. Or for that really funky look, how about a bit of string that you pull out?

You can see this idea on Quirky here:

http://www.quirky.com/ideations/214435?sc=true

If you like this idea, please vote for it and maybe one day we’ll all be using slightly greener clockwork toothbrushes and not daft and wasteful electric ones. Thanks!