I’ve been advised by dentists and dental hygienists for the higher a part of my life that I might do a greater job of flossing my tooth. It took an interview with a startup founder and the prospect to attempt a singular product for me to lastly think about an actual change in habits.
“You’re not alone,” mentioned Brynn MacLennan. “Most individuals don’t floss in any respect, and people who do largely do it incorrectly. And that’s why we invented our product.”
MacLennan is co-founder and CEO of Slate, a Spokane, Wash.-based maker of an electrical flosser.
MacLennan has a background as a product designer, and her co-founder and ex-husband Danny Snyder simply occurs to be a dentist and would-be inventor.
They began engaged on Slate in 2019, acquired a patent in 2020, launched a Kickstarter in 2021, and began promoting product in November 2022. In 2023, they made $1 million in gross sales.
Slate, which beforehand raised $800,000 in seed funding, lately raised one other $1.75 million in a second seed spherical, in response to an SEC submitting.
MacLennan mentioned when she and Snyder first constructed Slate, they despatched 500 to hygienists and 200 to dentists. They heard again from 95% of them who mentioned they’d suggest the flosser to their sufferers, and 74% who mentioned it was higher than any instrument available on the market at stimulating the gums.
“After I acquired that information, I used to be like, ‘OK we are able to make investments our power on this,” mentioned MacLennan, a mom of 5 who now runs the startup on her personal.
The machine seems and handles like an electrical toothbrush, much like Sonicare. The floss head on the prime vibrates at three completely different speeds and options what Slate calls “Gum Sweeps.”
“That’s what makes our product higher than anything,” MacLennan mentioned of the Sweeps. “These little triangles are what dentists would name an ‘interdental brush’ or ‘gum brush.’ We name them Gum Sweeps as a result of they’re a brand new design, and we invented them, and that is what’s patented on our product.”
The little triangles on both finish of the floss are designed to go the place your gums and tooth contact, and sonic vibrations from the flosser therapeutic massage your gums and disrupt plaque.
I take advantage of a Sonicare and have been utilizing string floss and pick-style floss to various levels of success for years. I get dinged by my hygienist throughout cleanings each six months, and every time I go away I resolve to do a greater job of staying on prime of flossing.
After an preliminary take a look at drive, the Slate flosser is definitely simpler to make use of than wrapping string round my fingers. I might really feel the Gum Sweeps working their approach between the bottom of my tooth and vibrating towards the gum line. It didn’t damage, and I didn’t bleed the way in which I generally do after conventional flossing. Though, I may be bleeding as a result of I’m not flossing recurrently sufficient.
Slate recommends that the floss heads — obtainable in a wide range of colours — be modified each week. The reverse aspect of the top additionally doubles as a tongue scraper, apparently to take away much more micro organism. My teenager makes use of a tongue scraper, which suggests somebody on TikTok has determined tongue scrapers are a factor now.
I took the flosser with me to my six-month dental checkup to point out it off to my hygienist and get her opinion about whether or not such a tool is worth it.
Kendra Cedana has been cleansing tooth for 4 years. She hadn’t beforehand seen or used a Slate flosser, however admitted that the machine seemed “cool” and that that may generally be all it takes for individuals to get into habits they could in any other case keep away from.
Cedana watched how I used the flosser after which took her personal flip utilizing it on my tooth.
“The vibration is stimulating the gum, but it surely’s not dislodging any of the plaque,” Cedana mentioned. “It’s important to nonetheless do the bodily work of scrub, scrub, scrub.”
Cedana demonstrated with a daily piece of string floss the approach that she would usually use, and it concerned six distinct strikes that cleaned the perimeters of my tooth in addition to beneath the gum line.
“Total, I believe handbook, conventional flossing goes to be more practical,” Cedana mentioned. “I’d say [the Slate flosser] is healthier than nothing, as a result of not less than one thing’s getting by means of to the contact spot the place the tooth come collectively, the place cavities actually begin.”
We agreed {that a} humanoid robotic powered by AI that involves my toilet each evening — armed with common previous floss — is one thing that Cedana ought to invent.
Alongside along with her {hardware} ambitions, MacLennan would like to innovate some software program features into the flosser, together with the power to speak relevant information with high-tech wearables such because the Apple Watch or Oura Ring.
The Slate flosser retails for $119 and a field of 20 floss heads is $25, obtainable direct-to-consumer, on Amazon, and thru some dental places of work. A 3-pack of Oral-B Glide Deep Clear Cool Mint Dental Floss is $10 at Walmart.
MacLennan mentioned the worth of her machine, manufactured at factories in China, Taiwan and the Philippines, is more likely to go up quickly attributable to President Trump’s tariff insurance policies.
She additionally added that the product ought to be coming to a “widespread retailer” quickly, due to a deal that’s within the works with an organization she couldn’t but identify.
