A New Toothbrush Accessory and the Market

So you own an electric toothbrush. Personally I use a Sonicare® and love it. The only thing I didn’t like was the toothpaste foam running down the handle and getting on my hand. Enough was enough. I started experimenting in my lab and eventually came up with the HandleDry, an accessory for your electric toothbrush that keeps the foam at bay. It’s a simple solution that works like a charm. The Toothbrush Market: There are several types of electric toothbrushes.Even though manufacturers introduce new manual brushes at a dizzying rate, improved electric toothbrushes make new converts each year.“The best guesses put electric toothbrush users at about 20 percent, maybe as high as 25 percent of the market,” says Alexandra Artisuk, D.D.S., a general dentist. “Each year, I see more and more of my patients using electric brushes.”If more people are making the switch to electric, why do companies bother to develop new manual brushes?“Mostly because electric toothbrushes are more expensive than manual brushes, which you can easily purchase for less than $2,” says Kathy Hettrich, professional marketing manager for Bausch & Lomb. Her company revolutionized the electric toothbrush industry when it produced the Interplak® toothbrush three decades ago.“We think more and more people will switch to electric but we don’t see a time when manual toothbrushes will be a thing of the past,” she says. “It is logical to believe that electric brushes could eventually take over more than half of the market because they are superior plaque removing devices.”Indeed, numerous studies confirm that electric brushes are superior plaque removing devices and are extremely effective in stimulating gums. But consumers like...