Sunstar GUM Playbrush Review: Turn Brushing Time Into Playtime

Value When Reviewed

Not at the moment obtainable within the US

It’s vibrant and chunky. There’s a cute inexperienced dragon. It’s received video games.  

The Gum playbrush is a smart-enabled sonic toothbrush designed particularly to immediate youngsters to wash their enamel correctly. That’s, brush for a minimum of two minutes and all of their enamel, not simply the molars at either side. 

And it does this via gamification and rewards in a specifically designed app. Each time your baby makes use of the comb, they’ll play an interactive recreation and gather cash.

However does it work? And the way does it work?

Let’s discover out.

Design and options

• Children and Junior fashions
• Comes with a charger and consumer handbook
• 8 week battery life

Contained in the field, you get the Gum sonic Playbrush and a brush head with additional tender bristles enclosed in a clear plastic journey cap. The comb head is accessible in two sizes: Children 3+ and Junior 6+. We’re testing the Junior mannequin.

You’ll additionally get a charger that plugs right into a UK energy socket, and a consumer handbook.

We went for the Junior 6+ in pink and aquamarine, however there’s additionally a blue and aquamarine mannequin. The toothbrush is 23cm lengthy from the highest of the comb to the underside of the bottom, and the bottom is 3cm in diameter, so it’s fairly chunky to carry. The comb head itself is 2.3cm lengthy and 1cm broad with the bristles reduce straight down with two barely elongated units on the high.

The facility button is on a rubberised panel on entrance that encompasses a grippy, raised bubble design; the again additionally encompasses a matching rubberised, bubble design panel.

Alex Greenwood / Foundry

The charger is in white exhausting plastic with a pin that secures the toothbrush base to the charging plate, and it boasts a cable that’s unusually lengthy for a toothbrush charger – we made it to be about 117cm.

As we talked about earlier, the charger plugs right into a UK plug socket, not a shaving socket, so this can be a brush that you simply’ll have to cost in a bed room, kitchen or utility room, relying on how you may have arrange your baby’s morning and night routines.

Gum states the battery will last as long as 8 weeks from a single cost.

Arrange and efficiency

• Two brushing modes
• Interactive brushing coach
• Number of video games

The arrange is pretty easy. Obtain the Playbrush app from both the Apple app retailer or Google Play – Gum provides a QR code – and also you register on the app by supplying your electronic mail deal with, and a password. Then cost the comb. A inexperienced gentle will pulse whereas it’s charging; as soon as it’s repeatedly lit, the battery is full.

Whenever you take away the comb from the charger, it’ll begin to blink blue. You activate Bluetooth in your telephone, and open the Playbrush app. The comb ought to then mechanically pair right away. You possibly can inform when the comb and app are linked as a result of the blue gentle shall be strong blue and the little toothbrush icon on the high right-hand facet of the app display will pop up in full color.

You possibly can then modify the comb’s settings. You’ve gotten a alternative between energy mode and delicate mode, which mainly adjusts the velocity of the comb, and you may set the brushing time.  You may as well arrange a profile particularly to your baby, and you’ve got a most of six profiles.    

You open the app, choose up the comb, choose your profile, and select a recreation.

First, there’s an interactive brushing coach. You get a real-time, 3D cartoon, dental simulation of a pair of enamel, and the place sensor within the brush updates the graphic to indicate you the place you’re brushing. As you sweep, little cartoon micro organism disappear.

We discovered the coach somewhat complicated, nevertheless, as the comb place within the app didn’t appear to correspond to the place the comb was within the mouth on the time, so a number of the prompts to alter sides left us darting the comb throughout the mouth. It appears as if there’s a delay within the movement sensor sign to the app.

Then there are brushing video games. The primary one we tried was a straightforward one, Utootha Paint, the place your tooth brushing slowly colors in an image. It’s a remarkably efficient method to get a baby to extend their toothbrushing session as a result of they only need to “end colouring within the fowl”.

The second recreation we tried was a medium one, referred to as Superstars, the place your brushing fills up a collection of columns so you possibly can catch stars and earn factors.

In each video games, your brushing instructions and mouth quadrants appeared to direct the exercise, however we discovered it complicated as to which a part of the mouth to brush.

Foundry

Then there’s the headline recreation My Buddy Dayo. Dayo is a cute cartoon dragon and a toothbrushing model of a Tamagotchi. Dayo is a digital pet that you simply hatch, feed, gown, and look after, all utilizing cash that you simply earn via brushing periods. It’s an ingenious thought, to be honest, and begins to alter the associations some youngsters could have about brushing their enamel – brushing turns into much less of a chore. 

There are additionally premium video games. These are video games that you must subscribe to Playbrush to entry. The Playbrush works with no subscription, however you possibly can’t really purchase the Playbrush with out additionally signing up for a subscription package deal.

The superior settings embrace detailed brushing statistics, together with brushing time, regularity and accuracy. 

Efficiency

Gum says the Playbrush delivers 17,000 motion per minute. Now we clearly can’t take a look at this declare, however what we’ll say is that the Playbrush leaves enamel feeling actually clear.

A part of this is likely to be that the video games present youngsters with a reward system so they really brush their enamel for 2 minutes – reasonably than one minute three seconds, say, as a result of they’re bored of standing within the rest room and need to soar up and down on the mattress as an alternative.

Add to that the truth that the video games additionally present them with prompts to maneuver the comb to a different a part of the mouth and, all collectively, it’s that change in toothbrushing behaviour, in addition to the sonic nature of the comb, that delivers such a improbable end result.

In fact, there’s a basic subject with the Playbrush: you want a baby that may use a sonic toothbrush. Some youngsters, significantly these with sensory processing points, usually are not going to manage properly with the vibrations in opposition to their enamel. But when your baby is comfortable to make use of a sonic toothbrush, we don’t see how the efficiency of the Playbrush may very well be improved.  

Value and availability

The Gum Playbrush is accessible in Europe and the UK. It’s not at the moment on the market within the US. We’re testing the Junior brush, which is for youngsters aged 6 and above. You should buy it from Gum for £29.99. Together with the comb, you’ll additionally get a 30 day trial run of the app. After this, it prices £24.99 per 12 months. That’s a further price to think about however you possibly can take a look at the app for a month and in case your baby likes it, spending £25 for a 12 months of pain-free brushing is one thing most mother and father would in all probability contemplate worthwhile.

However Gum additionally makes a Playbrush for teenagers aged over three. You should buy it from Amazon or direct from Gum. Each Playbrushes are available in a pink or blue colourway. Gum additionally makes an grownup’s sensible brush that apparently additionally has mini video games. 

Then there’s the subscription price. The All-Spherical Carefree plan is at the moment £3.33 a month, with a 30-day free trial interval, billed yearly at £39.99, and also you get free substitute brush heads, twelve video games, statistics, superior settings, and full entry to My Buddy Dayo.

The Motivational Plan offers you all this with out the substitute brush heads, and you may both pay £2.83 a month, billed each quarter at £8.49, or £2.12 a month, billed yearly at £25.49.

Verdict

We actually favored the Playbrush. It’s vibrant, it pairs simply to the app and there are video games to maintain youngsters concerned – it’s a terrific software for teenagers.

Okay, you want to enroll in a subscription to each buy the Playbrush and entry premium video games. Plus, to fully take away the stress of toothbrush time in your rest room, you’ll need to create a everlasting secure spot by your sink to web site a telephone or pill, however, all in all, we do assume the Playbrush is an inexpensive funding in your baby’s dental well being, significantly contemplating the present price of dentistry.

The truth is, we’d go up to now to say that we’d reasonably like a model for adults.

To see different electrical toothbrushes we advocate, take a look at our round-up of the very best electrical toothbrushes we’ve examined.