Those moments when I use the Hilary Duff Tooth Tunes toothbrush to clean my choppers are the only times you will ever hear Hilary Duff lyrics come out of my mouth, unless you get me drunk enough at a karaoke bar, but if you get me that drunk, I would pretty much do anything.
Technically, I am not singing the lyrics. The music is coming out of the brush’s head, which plays a two minute clip to encourage the target audience tweens to brush. The particular Hilary Duff song I got the pleasure of listening to every morning and night until the non-replaceable battery dies or until I go batshit insane from bad music and break it in half is called “Wake Up,” which is appropriate in the mornings, but not so much at night, unless you work the graveyard shift somewhere or you’re a prostitute with good oral hygiene.
I had choices when deciding which Tooth Tunes I wanted, but trying to come up with the right song was like trying to choose which type of burning sensation I wanted on my genitals. Actually, I didn’t really know any of the other “artists,” like Corbin Bleu, Jesse McCartney, and Ashley Tisdale. There was a limited selection at the Target I went to and the only names I recognized were Hilary Duff and Vanessa Hudgens, and I only knew Hudgens because there’s a nude picture of her floating around the internet.
After you press the button on the handle to start up the music that little girls love and record executives hope never gets old because it brings in a lot of money, the music plays only when pressure is applied to the bristles. When there isn’t any pressure, the music stops. So in order to hear the full two minutes of the song clip, which for this brush, turned out to be about two minutes twenty seconds, the young users need to be brushing their teeth…or if they’re smart, pull the brush head back with their fingers.
The sound was tinny, just as I expected. After all, it is a disposable toothbrush (Listen to me brush with Tooth Tunes). It was like I was listening to a really bad AM radio station in my mouth.
Because the speaker is in the brush’s head, one way to amplify the music is by opening your mouth while you brush, but if you have saliva glands as active as mine, that is not an option. The best way I found to improve the brush head’s sound is to bite on it, which obviously makes it really hard to brush.
To stick the speaker in the brush’s head, they had to make it fatter, but doing so made it hard for me to reach the outside of my back molars. I have the mouth of an adult, but the mind of a child, so I think the Tooth Tunes’ fat head would probably cause difficulty with those who have both the mouth and mind of a child.
On the packaging, a Dr. Ed McLaren, D.D.S. from the UCLA School of Dentistry says, “I personally use Tooth Tunes because it’s the only toothbrush I’ve seen that makes you really want to brush for 2 minutes. Plus, it encourages better brushing: If you brush well, you get great sound! Tooth Tunes is the best new product in oral care that I have seen in years.”
I call bullshit.
If you’re a dentist, I don’t think shitty pop music should be motivation for you to brush for two minutes. If you’re a dentist, I think the embarrassment of being a dentist with cavities should make you really want to brush for two minutes.
Overall, I think Tooth Tunes is a good concept to trick motivate children to brush for longer than they do, unless your child has good taste in music. Although paying ten dollars every three months for a new one isn’t so attractive. Also, if children listen to the song twice a day (or three times a day for you anal parents), they might get bored of it pretty quickly.
I have no children, but if I did, I personally would ridicule them into brushing by calling them “stinky mouth” and telling all their friends, relatives, and teachers to also call them “stinky mouth” until they start brushing properly.
I can’t wait to be a parent.
Item: Tooth Tunes Hilary Duff Toothbrush
Price: $9.89
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Good concept to trick motivate children to brush. Gets my teeth mostly clean. My future parenting skillz.
Cons: Hilary Duff. Can’t swap songs. Hard to brush the back teeth with its fat head. Sound was tinny. Non-replaceable batteries. Non-replaceable brush head. My overactive saliva glands. Dentists who openly admit that they use Tooth Tunes. Not ever getting back the two minutes spent listening to me brush my teeth.
LOL
i would get the same one if i didn’t love my Reach with built in tongue scraper on the opposite side of the brush head. it is perfect.
Marvo, Marvo, Marvo. Hilary Duff?!? You should’ve picked Vanessa Hudgens. I don’t wan’t Hilary Duff singing in my mouth. Actually, I take that back, I don’t want to her sing, AT ALL! Well, I thought the sound clip was funny, though. I still love your reviews. lol.
O_O
Marvo, what in the world are you doing with a Hilary Duff toothbrush? Trying to sneak a 10-point rating system while we’re distracted, eh?
From your review, it doesn’t sound like you got the concept of how the brush really works. When you brush with it, the “sound waves stream through the bristles and travel through your jawbone to your inner ear where the music is heard in your head!” (per the Tooth Tunes website). The music does sound fuller and better if you use the brush as directed. Just sayin’. 😉 I tried it and it was too cool. My kids love it, and they do brush longer, so I give it at least an 8 out of 10.
Marvo, we all want to seem cool to our friends, but it’s okay to love Hilary Duff.
If you just embrace your love of Hilary, her music and her toothbrush, your friends will respect your feelings (or they’re not really your friends at all, are they?).
This is one of the weirder ideas I’ve seen, for sure. Do they have a Britney Spears model?
Bit of an art project there with the recording. Laurie Anderson’d be proud!
That is frighteningly hilarious. Next thing you know they are going to have an iPod toothbrush, where you can actually select the songs.
The only way that would work with my kids is if they had a My Chemical Romance, or Fall Out Boy toothbrush. And the mere idea of having anything Pete Wentz in my mouth affects my gag reflex and is therefor not conducive to teeth brushing. However I do see a market for Bullemics and Supermodels.
I shouldn’t say things like that.
Wouldn’t having Pete Wentz in your mouth automatically make your mouth more dirty, as opposed to cleaner?
Personally I like Stinky Breath’s idea. I mean Marvo.
No Justin Timberlake? Now that…that I’d put in my mouth.
Gawd, Marvo, I don’t know how you lasted the two full minutes of brushing. I would have rammed the toothbrush up into my cranial cavity to end my suffering! Having said that you did get a nice rhythm going with your brush strokes. Bonus points if you brushed your tongue, but I don’t think you did.
I just read the packaging a little closer, what are the “special messages from Hilary”?
stephanie – No, it would perfect if it also flossed your teeth and gave you a gum massage.
Shannon – I’ve seen Hudgens naked, so I can’t take her seriously as a singer. Also, she was apparently in High School Musical, which more so doesn’t make me want to listen to her.
Rhawb – Hmm…I thought people wouldn’t notice that. Yeah, I’m moving over to a 10-point rating system. I’m tired of giving out so many 3-ratings.
Mel – If I brushed harder the music would be louder, but according to my dentist brushing hard may affect the enamel on my teeth and I wouldn’t want to hurt my teeth because I need them to gently bite the lower lip of the woman I’m making out with.
Karen – My friend are tolerant people. If I loved Hilary Duff, which I really don’t, they would understand and then give me CDs of jazz or alternative music to cleanse my palate.
Chuck – I checked their website and thankfully they don’t. I would not want to stick anything related to Britney Spears in my mouth. I think that’s the reason why I stay away from Doritos now.
Domokun – ::looks up Laurie Anderson on Wikipedia:: Oh, I should’ve brushed with the beat. Dammit. Maybe I’ll record something using the cereal boxes I have .
Cedar – I would probably buy that. Oh, I can see the iPod toothbrush silhouette commercial now.
Mia – I feel the same way about Ashlee Simpson. So whenever I see pictures of Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson together I collapse and start foaming at the mouth.
Nevis – My future kids are going to end up therapy when they’re older.
cian – Yeah, I might put a Justin Timberlake in my mouth too. I think the beat of SexyBack is a great way to fight plaque. RHYMING WIZARD!!!
Molly – I don’t brush my tongue because I figure it’s just moving around the gunk on my tongue. I use a spoon to scrape my tongue.
Karen – “Have a nice day!” “Haylie is riding my coattails” and “Hannah Montana is lame, Lizzie McGuire forever!”
I cannot believe you paid $10 for that! I hope you can’t believe yourself either.
oh… first 6/10 rating… why not /5?
But why would you listen to Hilary Duff?
To add to my comment. You had to listen to her.
What if they replaced the Hilary Duff songs w/ quotes from Office Space, or Friday? Would that improve it?
Wow you sure do mention prostitutes a lot.
“I personally would ridicule them into brushing by calling them “stinky mouth†and telling all their friends, relatives, and teachers to also call them “stinky mouth†until they start brushing properly.”
I have got to say, this is pretty much right on with what I would do as well.
My poor children.
I was given the “Let’s Get It Started” Tooth Tunes brush as a gift after laughing about it in the drugstore. I thought it worked by bone conduction, which would have been really cool, but no – it’s just a matter of pressing the head back, as you noted. And I don’t normally press my toothbrush THAT HARD onto my teeth, I just use moderate pressure, so I could brush my teeth perfectly well without hearing a thing. Of course, that kind of defeated the purpose.
I ended up throwing it out a couple of days ago while cleaning my closet. I guess I should have saved the batteries…oh well.
Amy – I believe I paid for it, because I still have the receipt. 🙂
Amy – I give out way too many 3/5, which is pretty lame, so I decided to change it so that can’t happen.
Shannon – It’s the lesser of the other evils, plus I’ve never heard of any of the other choices and because I’ve never heard of them, they probably suck hard. Also because I don’t like the brush head’s fatness, I’ve kind of stopped using it.
Brie – I think I could only listen to Lumbergh say, “Um…About those TPS reports” about three more times before I burn the Initech building down.
just a thought – My English professors told me to write what I know.
Alisha Smith – But our children will have the cleanest mouth kids EVER.
Meredith – I remember seeing the commercial on TV and thinking to myself, “That’s totally retarded…retarded enough for me to review.” Mine had been unused for the past couple of days and for some reason my regular toothbrush feels so much better.
You totally missed out on the song choice. I have long since chose “Rock and Roll All Night” as my tooth tune of choice.
I honestly do not know how someone like you could actually stand listening to Hillary Duff whilst simultaneously brushing my teeth.
A nice aria from Don Giovanni like “Dalla sua pace” would certainly be nice, but the tinny sound wouldn’t possibly do it justice, and the song is also too long. This would leave thousands of hygienic opera lovers hanging, waiting for the last notes of the song.
Turns out crappy pop songs are the only ones that fit into toothbrush memory.
JJ– Unfortunately, they didn’t have that one. If they did, I probably would’ve picked it up, but I also think making me listen to shitty pop music makes for an interesting review.
ZangieF – Yes, I’m surprised that her music doesn’t make my teeth fall out.
I hate that Hilary Bitch. And I think I would rather slice my wrist the right way than have her music come out of my mouth. Why the hell would anyone do that to their kids. Your way is way more appropriate. I think you’ll make a fine father. Keep up the good work