C-Wash: tooth cleaning without water or toothpaste

Anyone who travels frequently, has limited motor skills, or finds little time to breathe between busy schedules is likely to be familiar with problems maintaining optimal dental hygiene. Brushing teeth takes at least two to three minutes at least twice a day and requires access to a toothbrush, running water and toothpaste. In addition, fine motor skills to apply toothpaste and move the brush appropriately must be present. Italian company C-Wash now wants to change that and make tooth cleaning more accessible. To this end, it has developed a tooth-cleaning device that does not require toothpaste or water and is designed to clean teeth automatically in the blink of an eye.

Mouthpiece with oscillating brushes

The heart of C-Wash is a mouthpiece made of polymers and features oscillating brushes. This brush head is pushed into the mouth, where it does all the cleaning work required at the touch of a button. It also releases menthol and xylitol, which is supposed to replace toothpaste and water. This sets it apart from similar cleaning devices like the Amabrush or the Y-Brush.

C-Wash also places great emphasis on the fact that its teeth cleaning device can be used with a specially designed app. This app offers the possibility to regulate the intensity as well as the duration of the tooth cleaning in predefined levels. By default, a cleaning process lasts 30 seconds. However, it can be extended to up to two minutes. The app also allows users to log their own cleaning activities. This makes it possible to see at any time when the teeth were last cleaned and how much time was spent on cleaning. Longer-term logs can also be created in the app.

The target group for the C-Wash brush developed from 2018 consists of people with limited mobility as well as people who travel a lot or are otherwise dependent on quick and preferably barrier-free tooth cleaning. For this reason, C-Wash supplies a can together with the cleaning mouthpiece that can easily be stowed in a jacket pocket or handbag. This should make it possible to clean teeth anywhere – completely independent of the supply of water and/or toothpaste. However, there are two restrictions: the temperature at the storage location must not be below -20 as well as not above +30 degrees Celsius and the device’s battery must be recharged every now and then. This is possible via a USB connection with a maximum of five volts. In its FAQs, C-Wash also points out that its device cannot replace the traditional toothbrush, but can only supplement it – which makes its use less sensible for bedridden people, for example, who still need help with the actual cleaning of their teeth. Only the short-term use on trips with poor accessibility of the conditions for ordinary tooth brushing seems really useful against this background. However, the company behind the device also points out that studies are currently underway to evaluate whether the device can not adequately replace traditional teeth cleaning.

Price and Availability

The C-Wash costs 131.90 euros in the starter kit, which includes three mouthpieces, a handle with integrated rechargeable battery and a storage box. Without replacement mouthpieces and storage can, the price is 114.70 euros. Replacement mouthpieces can be purchased in packs of two for a total of 13.10 euros. All prices are exclusive of sales tax.