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From Candy Crush to Candy Brush: New App for Teeth Brushing

There’s now a legitimate reason to bring your phone into the bathroom: to help you brush your teeth correctly.

There’s now a legitimate reason to bring your phone into the bathroom: to help you correctly brush your teeth. Oral-B just introduced a new “smart” toothbrush named the Genius, which works in tandem with a special app to record metrics such as interdental cleaning, pressure applied, brushing duration, and tongue cleanliness.

Oral-B unveiled the high-tech tooth tool at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday, explaining that the Genius' unique system that involves location tracking and acceleration sensors will “take digital guidance to the next level by bringing awareness to what's actually happening each time users brush, and giving them real-time guidance to improve every brushing session,” said Dr. Jose Nart, DDS, in a press release from parent company Procter & Gamble.

To use the Genius, brushers must attach their smartphone to the mirror using a special suction cup, then position themselves in front of the camera. The app then displays zones of the mouth represented by blue segments, which the user must brush away. Oral-B developed the system in response to the fact that 80 percent of people don’t dedicate the same amount of time to each tooth when they brush.

In addition to having essentially made teeth brushing into a video game — let's call it "candy brush" — Oral-B is also investigating third-party options such as partnering with banks to offer financial rewards as an incentive to get younger kids — and perhaps some adults — to perfectly polish their pearly whites.

The Oral-B Genius will be available in Europe in July and the U.S. this fall, for an expected retail price of around $250.