Useless Gadget: Tooth Tunes

Trust Tiger Electronics to come up with something that we can find useless on our program…

Tooth Tunes is a new gadget designed to get your kids brushing their teeth with less fuss. Jumping onto the whole music player bandwagon is a device that integrates music in a way I don’t think anyone could ever imagine would work.

Which would explain why it doesn’t.

Tooth Tunes is a toothbrush that plays music.

Tooth Tunes: because you really want more music stuck in your head.

Tooth Tunes: because you really want more music stuck in your head.

Yes, you read that right: a toothbrush that plays music.

Built with around two minutes of music, Tooth Tunes toothbrushes are electric toothbrushes that are – for the most part – disposable dental instruments that clean the gunk off your teeth all the while giving you something to bop that head to.

For our test, we grabbed the Transformers Tooth Tunes toothbrush, a model that’s armed with an Optimus Prime sticker and – when turned on – cranks out the sound of Optimus Prime as well as some incarnation of the Transformers theme song that probably relates to a new version of the show. If it’s the old version, my memory must really suck.

If the sounds of alien robots blowing each other up jamming to the electronic sounds of the cartoon aren’t really your thing, there’s always a variety of Tooth Tunes at your disposal with models coming with Hillary Duff’s “Wake Up,” Kiss’s “Rock & Roll All Night,” and even The Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started.”

This might sound pretty retarded and guess what… it is.

I honestly don’t think I could see the angle this thing must have been pitched with in a meeting at Tiger Electronics. Seriously, who thinks that listening to music makes kids brush their teeth more?

Regardless, it is approved by the Australian Dental Association and it does work as a toothbrush. Further, the technology that the toothbrush uses to play it’s audio is kind of cool as, when turned on, the speaker emits more volume when the toothbrush is pushed back. You’ll find this becomes more noticeable as you use the toothbrush because the little switch at the back has been pushed back and the speaker is obviously working. As the sound comes out into your mouth, it seems to reverberate in the giant theatre of your head, letting you listen to the sound comfortably.

That is if you haven’t gone insane from listening to the selection of music your Tooth Tunes toothbrush was equipped with.

We picked up the Tooth Tunes toothbrush from a Priceline for five bucks, and as a gimmick it’s worth every penny. I wouldn’t recommend it so much as a toothbrush and would highly suggest something made by either Colgate or Oral-B instead of this any day, but as a gimmick it might be a cool little toy to give to a kid. Especially a kid who fears the dentist and loves pop music (or robots in disguise).

Product: Tooth Tunes
RRP: $15.99