Dyson was first rumored to be launching a toothbrush in the middle of the last decade and patents subsequently leaked way back in 2018 in and a subsequent one appeared. It had a built-in flosser. Yep, a toothbrush that flosses your teeth as you brush.
And, as if to demonstrate that Dyson has a long history of iterating thousands of times on its new products and spending a long time perfecting them, the toothbrush as now launched (a year later than originally planned, it seems).
The rather expensive $420/£420 Dyson CameraJet – yes that really is its name – isn’t actually that far removed in terms of design from those early patents, with a bulbus 12.5ml tank underneath the brushhead and a thick handle which matches the dimensions of other Dyson personal care products. Although I wasn’t allowed to use it, I have held it and is rather large in the hand so I predict that later versions will be smaller.
The really clever part is actually in the anti-stall brush head – a camera that lends the brush its name. As you brush, the integrated macro lens camera detects, tracks and predicts gaps in your teeth and within 100ms it fires a precision jet of rinse in between your teeth. Dyson says this is designed to remove more plaque yet be more gentle on your teeth. I’ve felt the impact of the conical jet on my hand and it does feel quite aggressive, so I’m really interested to try one out properly and see how it feels on my teeth.
The CameraJet’s anti-gravity tank with a diaphragm pump and pressure chamber that adapts to deliver controlled, uninterrupted jets in any orientation. It’s designed to prevent air pockets and keep firing the rinse when required.
Dyson says the camera is only active during live viewing or auto-jetting. No images are recorded or stored on the product or in the cloud, and images remain private to the user.
The CameraJet has Wi-Fi on board so you can link it up to the Dyson app and see how you brush and check in on tips and . Dyson says that CameraJet has been trained on 470,000 dental images collected during development.
The consumable costs aren’t outrageous, but they are significant at $25/£25 for a pack of two RFID-tagged brush heads (you get two in the pack with the brush as well as toothpaste and rinse). The CameraJet also comes with a charging dock and travel case.
“Flossing is an awkward and time-consuming chore,” says founder James Dyson. “Few of us do it even though we know we should. Dyson engineers and scientists have spent well over a decade understanding oral care regimes and how nasties build up in the mouth. Our research has shown that people consistently miss the areas where plaque forms: the gaps between teeth.” 9 in 10 people don’t floss as much as they should, according to Dyson’s research.
Dyson fluid dynamicists spent years optimising the profile of the jet to remove plaque more effectively. Dyson even developed its own fake plaque via a collab with the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Dentistry. This meant the company was able to experiment without the need for lenghtly clinical trials at every stage.
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