Tag Archives: Milan Design Week 2015

Nano-enabled toothbrush uses water only for cleansing teeth

Milan Design Week (April 14 – 19, 2015) generally doesn’t generally feature here but the introduction of a nano-enabled toothbrush which will keep your teeth looking like they were just cleaned at the dental office and doesn’t require toothpaste cannot be ignored. From an April 13, 2015 article by John Brownlee for Fast Company (Note: Links have been removed),

Designer Kosho Ueshima collaborated with Japanese technology company Yumeshokunin to create an incredible toothbrush that uses nanotechnology to clean your teeth—no toothpaste necessary. The brush’s bristles—which are 0.178 millimeters thick—are coated in mineral ions, and when passed over your teeth, the ions remove stains and form a protective coating over your enamel. To activate the brush, all that’s needed is a dip in a cup of water.

Meant to resemble a stream of running water, the brush is named Misoka, which means “last day of the month,” in Japanese. That also happens to be the lifespan of these brushes, requiring a change of bristles every 30 days.

Here’s the latest version of the toothbrush,

NanoToothBrush

A ??, ??, 2015 article by Jessica Zannoti for Social Design Magazine, provides more details,

The project is a collaboration with the company Yumeshokunin Co. LTD of Osaka entrusting the nanotechnology mineral development of its products.

Yumeshokunin – “artisan of dreams” in Japanese – combines craftsmanship with advanced technology, with the idea of ​​”convey feeling in the world.”

Misoka: nanotechnology, mineral ions and water (pure)

The objects that make use of nanotechnology are characterized by the size of the order of a billionth of a meter. The bristles of the toothbrush misoka are in fact coated with mineral ions of nanometric dimensions. As you brush, the ions move in the water and pass the bristles to the teeth by removing stains, coating them and keeping them clean and shiny all day.

Unlike traditional bristles, those misoka thin on the tips for better cleaning and massaging the interdental areas. Even without toothpaste, teeth are shiny and clean as just come out of a session of teeth cleaning at the dentist.

The expression misoka Japanese for “last day of the month” and the toothbrush should be replaced every month just, after which time it deteriorates and loses its effectiveness. Misoka also due Misogi word meaning “to purify body and spirit with pure water.” If you brush your teeth with misoka means using energy minerals – noted Kosho Ueshima at the design stage – then this gesture is equivalent to simply brush with water. The result is a new way to brush teeth.

I have not been able to unearth more information about the mineral ions being used to clean teeth. According to Zanotti and other sources, the toothbrush has been available since 2007 in the Japanese and Asian markets. 2015 marks the toothbrush’s introduction to Europe.

You might be able to find out more about the product and the mineral ions on the Yumeshokunin website but you will need Japanese language reading skills.