Student Clinician Creates App to Make Brushing Fun!

Former 1999 UK DENTSPLY Student Clinician, Ben Underwood, has developed a unique free app called Brush DJ to make brushing less boring. The innovative app plays two minutes of a song taken at random from the music library stored on the user's device. This encourages people to brush for an effective length of time while rediscovering their music collection. This short  YouTube  video gives an overview of the free Brush DJ app.

A recent survey by the British Dental Health Foundation reported nearly 59% of women and 35% of men regularly skip brushing their teeth at bedtime. The UK government's latest dental health survey found only 21% of people use dental floss and only 26% use an electric toothbrush. Dental floss use has fallen between 1998 and 2009 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and a study in the US reported that the average time spent brushing is considerably shorter than the recommended 2 minutes, with the average being about 45 seconds.

Brush DJ also allows users to set reminders to brush, floss, use a mouth rinse and when they next need to visit their dentist or hygienist. Evidence-based age specific information is given as per the UK Department of Health's toolkit 'Delivering Better Oral Health'.

Underwood says he was inspired to come up with this idea after watching the BBC's Apprentice where candidates were asked to design an app. He felt this would be an ideal tool to help make people aware of the latest advice to keep their mouths healthy and encourage them to brush for the right length of time to be effective, to help reduce the risk of gum disease, decay and bad breath.

Brush DJ is available for both Apple and Android devices and has already been downloaded in 76 countries around the world.

Underwood welcomes feedback on how Brush DJ can be improved and can be contacted via the website www.BrushDJ.com .