Behind a Smile with Dr. Shauntel Ambrose

Embracing the Next Wave of Dental Innovations for Healthier Smiles

• Shauntel Ambrose

Share episode

Send us a text

Uncover the future of oral care with IvoDent/Ivohealth as we explore a new realm of dental health innovation. Their insights on the Oclean X Ultra S electric toothbrush, equipped with AI voice guidance and magnetic levitating motor technology, promise to revolutionise the way we approach our daily brushing routine. Discover on this episode  how advanced dental products are not just fancy gadgets but essential tools for maintaining optimal oral health.

The conversation then shifts to the value of investing in top-tier oral health technology. Imagine a world where your toothbrush isn't just a tool, but a personal dental health coach, equipped with brush heads that cater to your unique needs, from gum care to teeth whitening. We discuss the Balene double- sided brush with innovative features that enhance cleaning efficiency, longer lasting bristles with anti-bacterial properties that can be used for children and adults who may not have the best dexterity, or are needing someone else to clean their teeth . And it's not just about the novel features—understand the profound impact of premium oral care on your overall health and how it can lead to considerable dental cost savings.

 As we celebrate some of the most innovative products transforming dental health, I also share my personal journey with these advancements, offering strategies for professional growth, brand building, and diversifying business approaches. This episode isn't just a discussion—it's an invitation to join a community of healthcare professionals dedicated to bettering their practice and personal lives through the power of innovation. Join us as we acknowledge the pioneers of this field and provide inspiration for a brighter, healthier future.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

Hello and welcome to Behind a Smile. I am Dr Shauntel Ambrose and I am an dentist. I host a healthcare business podcast where I interview healthcare practitioners around the world, sharing tips on how to improve your healthcare practice, innovate and grow, while living your best life. We share products and information from healthcare partners that can help you in your practice journey, be it a startup, a family-based business or a multidisciplinary healthcare team. Most of the information provided here is based on personal experience and opinions, so please supplement what you learn here with approved research studies and professional advice. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed and I invite you to join our community. If you haven't, we would love to hear from you. If you would like to be on the show, drop me a mail at behindasmile2@ mailcom. Let's make it happen together.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

So Ivoclar and Ivohealth are proudly hosting the inaugural Africa Dental Symposium in Cape Town on the 22nd of March, Friday and Saturday, the 23rd of March 2024, at Century City Conference Center. So presenting at the symposium will be a team of world renowned dentists and dental technicians. You will get to interact with Ivoclar's business partners from 16 different countries throughout Africa, as well as visit exhibitors showcasing high quality dental products and catch up with colleagues during two social events A Friday cocktail party as well as a Saturday dinner, all inclusive of the price of 7900. This event has already been applied for 10 CBD points. It's really not an event to be missed and if you want to go and book, I encourage you to go to www. ivodentafrica. com

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

Hi everyone, it's Dr Ambrose here and today. We have partnered up with Iva Health and Ivadint to talk about the Oclean X Ultra S, as well as the Balene manual first of its kind, double-sided brush as part of our inspiring dental products series. So joining us in studio today is Anika Van Wyk, who is the marketing manager for Oclean and Balene. She's passionate and she's known for bringing global trends to our shores, ensuring that the latest trends and research are available to Iva Dental clients. I also have the privilege of Dana Grobelaar. She is the Ivodent oral hygiene advisor. She's a seasoned media professional for Ivoh ealth and hosts live chats on Ivoh ealth's Facebook page. She's currently in private practice as well as a busy mum of three, so I'm very excited to speak to you both and welcome. Welcome to our studio. Tell me, tell us a little bit about your journey that led you to be part of the Ivoh ealth team.

Anike:

From my side. I've always sort of been passionate about oral care and you know kind of that whole system, because when I started at Ivod ent I told my dad you know what I'll be doing. He's like finally, someone's gonna pay you to go to this game and stand in front of the oral care aisle Kind of my story, but Dirna.

Dirna:

Yeah, I think I was kind of born into dentistry. As my father is a dentist, I'm very passionate about oral hygiene and helping Ivod ent. This part of their business is really a privilege for me and I think as a clinician, it also helps you a bit to be on the other side. It's definitely broadened my horizons and it's really a lovely team to work with. I absolutely love it.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

You know, listen, I think that it's fantastic to have both of you in, because both of your expertise in what we really wanting to know about, which is the Oclean X-Ultra S. So I've tested a few electric brushes and I must say this brush seems to be at the top end of the premium market range. I want to know what can you tell our listeners about the features of this electric brush, and what do dentists need to know about this brush if they are offering it to their patients?

Anike:

So if we just do a very brief overview of what the X-Ultra set is all about, it is one of the most powerful brushes in the market right now, and this is globally. It has a couple of features that we really haven't seen in any other brand, so Oclean is really known as a disruptor in the oral care space. Just to kind of start from the top, one of the most amazing features for me is the AI voice guidance, where the brush actually tells you you're brushing too hard, you're brushing too fast because, as you know,, brushing with a manual brush and brushing with a rechargeable brush is a completely different story. It also, of course, gives you the brushing feedback on the screen, which is completely unique. No other brush has that.

Anike:

The AI voice guidance is actually a really interesting one because it uses bone conduction technology, so while you're brushing, the voice kind of travels up your jawbone into your ear so you hear the feedback very clearly even that the brush is inside your mouth. The brush uses the Maglia 3.0 motor, so that stands for Magnetic Levitating Motor. It's incredibly powerful and the Maglia motor specifically ensures that the brush is very stable. So the back and forth sweeping motion is very consistent and gives you an excellent clean versus other sonic motors that kind of go all over the place and it's really not the best clean you can have.

Dirna:

Yeah, it's a very comfortable brush to brush with. There's not a lot of vibration you can feel. I think from a technical side of view, one of the trickiest things and I know this sounds very simple really, but is to get patients to brush long enough. With a brush with a timer on, you actually realise how long two minutes can be, especially in the morning when you're trying to get kids to school and getting your children to brush long enough. So I think that's one of the most important things getting them to brush long enough. And then the voice. It's really something different here. As my brush, it's really absolutely brilliant, great for patient motivation as well. As I said, biggest problem for me getting patients, children and adults to brush long enough. So with this guidance, you cannot go wrong.

Anike:

And to Dana's point, the motivation aspect. The brush also uses gamification features so it tells you you've only brushed for one minute and 50 seconds If you've brushed well. And this is very interesting because the brush actually has a four-axis gyroscope so it measures exactly where you've brushed and which areas you've missed. And if you've missed anything it tells you listen, I'm going to put this on for 30 more seconds. Take care of the area that you've missed, which is, funnily enough, like even when we tested the brush, a lot of us noticed we weren't doing the whole two minutes. But it gives you a little reward if you've brushed well and it gives you like a little star, a little like well done. And you know gamification has been proven to actually increase engagement with and as with a product or a feature. So that's really great for getting people motivated to brush the proper amount of time.

Anike:

The last kind of feature and this is sort of a general feature about the Oclean range, but specifically the X Ultra is the battery life. This has happened to so many people where you want you grab your toothbrush in the morning and it's dead. So it actually shows you on the screen what percentage of battery you're on. It also lasts around 40 days, which is groundbreaking because the average sonic kind of battery life is 12, so 12 days, 14 days, 12 to 14 days depending on how long you brush for. And then the charging time is like three to five hours, which is very fast, considering most brushes ask you to keep the brush on the stand or charge it overnight. So really this was created with convenience in mind.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

If I was going to keep this in my practice. I think that this is the type of brush that you're going to give to somebody who is interested to actually know what is going on with their oral health. For me and you know it's an important aspect is that ever since I've gotten that brush, I can truly say that it's almost a dandestina brush. It's telling you what you're needing to do all the time in order to improve where you're at, and you also can double check if you've missed something, because we have busy lives and you know, the great thing about AI, the great thing about technology, is it's trying to close that ever increasing gap of trying to get the best out of life. You know such a short time, so there's almost this feeling like you got somebody with you. They're on that oral health journey with you and they're making it better for you. You can forget about it because they're going to remind you. So that's what I really like about it, and I think that's what patients need to know.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

If you're going to be keeping this in your practices Now you tell me who is this brush going to be prescribed to? And you know, listen, I'm practical, I'm a super practical dentist. I would love to know where is this price point and what is that value proposition for that price point?

Anike:

So I think this brush is a really interesting one because, as you mentioned, it is for people who want to know a bit more, but it is also for patients who really do need a day to split them in the bathroom. I think dental professionals, you know, take it for granted that everyone understands and knows how to brush, but keep in mind that for most people this is a mindless activity. They stand and think about their day and kind of you know, zone out. So I think this is perfect for patients who really need a helping hand, like someone who either has sort of major dental issues that you need to address, someone who is really like, appreciates technology, who wants something the top of the range, like the absolute best there is on offer. Dima, who are you?

Dirna:

prescribing to. I agree with you. I always tell my patients buy the best electric toothbrush that you can afford. But this toothbrush is not going to be in everybody's price range. But if you can buy this brush there is value in it, you know. You will feel this was really absolutely a very good investment to make. I always say if you think how expensive dentistry is these days, I mean the cost of, if you can avoid the cost of one crown, one root canal treatment with this brush, you've already paid it, not even talking about the inconvenience. I would rather spend the money on this invasive toothbrush than spend it on a root canal treatment. So it's really such a good investment to make in your overall health.

Dirna:

You can go to the best dentist that there is. You can, as a dentist you can do the most amazing dental work. But if a patient does not take care of their teeth at home, it will really go to waste. So our fight here is against biopharm and if you can keep your teeth clean at home, as clean as possible, I mean this brush will just put you in another level of oral hygiene at home Because, as we said, we tend to take a brush. I mean a lot of my patients. They bring their brushes to the practice. They look terrible. They're all worn and awful. This brush even tells you when you need to replace the head because they don't want them to things that we're very slack with changing our head and changing our normal brushes. So this brush really will help you to control your plaque at home and not just to avoid caries and things like that, but gum disease as well. I mean, gum disease affects so many people these days. It's absolutely critical to take good care of your teeth at home.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

I know that just by using it it's super luxurious. It's the most beautiful unboxing. It comes in this red and black design. It really is at that premium market range. But I agree with you completely that if you are interested in increasing your oral health IQ, this is a really great start to actually just anybody who wants to do that. So tell us a little bit about their brush heads. I mean, sometimes I can get a little bit fussy about brush heads, and do you have some alternatives for every kind of brush out there?

Anike:

Oclean really does offer kind of a fantastic variety. Doesn't matter if you like medium or soft bristles. The ultra brush heads that come with the X Ultra set is actually a world first innovation. That is the first flexible brush head on the market globally. So how that works is it has a slightly shorter bristle, so there's better power transfer between the brush and your teeth, meaning it cleans a lot better Because of the flexible head.

Anike:

You also can't really brush too hard because the head will just give way, and there are two sort of variants in that the gum care, which is a softer bristle, and then the whitening, which is a slightly harder bristle but it has a polishing ring in it. Oakley does have a quite a variety and I know Dirna's favorite is the gum care one, which is an ultra soft tapered bristle. We have the extra delicate which is this compact head which we have a lot of inquiries about, and it's 20% smaller than the normal brush heads. So all of the oclean brushes use all of the oclene brush heads so you can really just select whatever you feel like and use that one on your brush.

Dirna:

They're all interchangeable, they're all interchangeable.

Anike:

It's super easy.

Dirna:

And what I like about the packaging of this brush specifically is they put the different heads in the box so you can try all of them, because one works for one patient might not work for another patient. So if the brush only comes out with one specific head, then you have to go and trial and error with the other ones. With this brush you can try all of them and see which one will suit you better. As Anika and I said, there's one that, with very soft, tapered bristles, absolutely love that. One Amazing interproximal reach, subjunctival reach absolutely great. I do see a lot of patients that had periodontal treatment.

Dirna:

Recession and sensitivity is very common these days. I think it's got a lot to do with all the whitening products that buy these days that you've got to be careful for. It can cause a lot of recession, a lot of sensitivity. So I absolutely love that brush and we haven't spoken about this previous sense of that in this brush. Yes, so the brush has got a little light at the bottom that goes blue when you start your brush and as soon as you turn and you press too hard, this little light goes red and then the brush talks to you.

Anike:

Yes, if you have that setting switched on to get the AI feedback, it will tell you that. Otherwise it will just show a little red light and sort of yes, that's also where the turbo clean algorithm comes. So there's a lot of software and hardware to this brush, which is really exciting, which is what I'm always talking about it. So what the turbo clean algorithm does is it measures the pressure that's put on the brush. If the pressure gets higher or like harder pressure, the turbo clean algorithm actually realizes you know what we've got to step this up and it increases the power to compensate that. Similarly, if it's, if it's brushing too hard, it'll late off a little bit. So the turbo clean algorithm kind of compensates for people's brushing technique and tries to get the best outcome.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

So it's better and better. Hey, I know that there's now, if you've listened to our show. There's a huge body of research that suggests that general health is linked to oral health. Now how would this brush help if you want to keep your general health in check?

Dirna:

I think, as we said, just absolute, amazing plot control. Our fight here is against bacteria that's in our biofilms and our plug, and the better you can control this on a regular basis, the healthier your mouth will be and the healthier your overall health. Of course, I think brushing at home sometimes gets neglected. We're not brushing long enough, with which this brush will sort out. We may be using two hot brushes, causing a lot of recession, not getting nicely in between, which this brush will really sort out. So, as we said, great investment for absolute good, great plot control at home.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

I think that I love luxury and, I've said it before, I am very practical and I want you to give us an idea about these practicalities, because I travel a lot and when I do travel, I very seldomly ever take an electric brush with me, because I've left my electric brushes in hotel rooms. I've just lost a charger. Do you have what makes this brush practical as well? Can you tell us a little bit about the practical aspects? Is there a travel case? What is your app loading like? And then what happens when your battery stops working or you lose your charger or you drop the brush, because these things do happen with these brushes.

Anike:

Right. I mean, the Oclean range in general was really thoughtfully designed with practicality in mind, right? So the X Ultra has a 40 day battery life. So if you're traveling more than 40 days, you're very fortunate. You will have to take sort of the travel case, and the travel case that comes with the X Ultra is also a charging case, so you can just plug it in using a little USB-C and it'll do its thing. Other than that, it's very nice and compact.

Dirna:

It's very compact. The other thing is that this is really a nice, very good looking as well, but a very nice small, compact case and you can fit two heads in there.

Anike:

Which is important if you need to switch over. So the battery life is obviously very important. The X Ultra does have a proprietary charger which charges it in about three hours, so that is super quick. You can just nip out while you're having supper. When you come back your brush is charged. Most of the range actually have differing charging times and battery life.

Anike:

Something that is really popular is the Oclean flow, which is a slightly sort of one-expansive model, but that one has up to 180 days. So we actually tested it. We sent our CEO overseas with the flow and he hadn't charged it in about two months. So you get really great mileage out of all the Oclean brushes. It's super practical. A feature that kind of took us by surprise because of how well thought out it was. The X Ultra, when you switch it on for the first time, vibrates at a very low frequency. Only once you put pressure on it meaning putting it on your teeth it doesn't really kick in properly, and the reason why it does that is because of how people brush. They take their toothbrush, put some toothpaste on and then of course the toothpaste goes everywhere, but with this brush it stays on the toothbrush until you actually place it on your teeth. So it's all of these small kind of details that makes Oakland really that next step into that premium oral case phase.

Dirna:

Yeah, and I think one of the things that also impressed me and a lot of my patients is one of the things with their electric toothbrushes. When you let it stand, the bottom part here can get really gunky after a while, you know. And all of these brushes got a little magnitude at the back where you can hang it on the wall also for just good hygienic reasons.

Anike:

The wall stand is really popular.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

Yeah, I can imagine why, because I've had a few of my brushes get that way. I'm telling you there's nothing worse than when you see a whole lot of mold on your brush. But anyway, so that's your premium Oclean Ultra, and I have a review later on in the season to hear what I think about it. So let's go watch the space. Let's switch over now to yet another revolutionary range, the Balene manual brush. My first question with the balene was why this brush and that, why now I?

Dirna:

Think. My first thought was this is not going to work. This is another gimmick.

Dirna:

Honestly, I mean, I'll see you okay but, I, thought by myself oh my word, what, what have you done? This is not going to work. And I did try it for a day or two and I my own Opinion I didn't like it. It was very difficult for me personally to get used to it. But then I went away for a week and I and they kept on asking what do I think about the brush? My thoughts are terrible. I thought myself dinner. You have to take this brush with you, you have to force yourself to use it, and I did that over a long weekend and I fell in love with this brush. It is absolutely Effective and Did, and I see on the packaging it also says that there's a two to three day adjusting time. So I always keep that in mind, especially if you do advise your patients to use it. There is an adjustment time with this because it's such different way of brushing. Now I'm absolutely a fan of this brush.

Anike:

Yeah, just to join with dinner. We're saying it is quite a weird looking contraption and our first thought was also off. I don't know about this, but the lean. Actually it's the lean like the whale. Most of us call it Balene. So the Balene brush was actually designed by someone who had an issue. So the creator, his father, ended up in hospital and he had to brush for him and he really struggled. With a normal manual brush, as anyone can tell you, if you have to brush for someone else, it's nearly impossible to reach the the inner side of the mouth.

Anike:

And this thing was in research and development for over five years and now that it's sort of gone global, it has absolutely Exploded. Every country has jumped on it. It's certainly like, proven, really, really effective in our market, anyway. So we've had so many Messages and feedback from everyone, from parents who are helping their kids brush, because, as you know, kids don't always have those fine motor skills to be able to brush properly. We're actually asking them to do something quite difficult that a lot of adults can't do.

Anike:

And we've also had a lot of feedback From people with mobility and dexterity issues, people who are brushing for other people, as in like they have carers or someone who you're taking care of, they're getting fantastic results. Someone said to me the other day that they this person has quite a sort of severe disability, and they said they don't think they've ever Properly brushed the inside of their teeth. This is the cleanest their mouth has ever felt, and that kind of feedbacks would really Inspires you to keep looking for these innovative, you know, life-changing products, because it really does make a big difference. It's not just a brush. It actually helps people practice good oral care, which they wouldn't otherwise be able to.

Dirna:

Yeah, I was always difficult to Motivate children brush. I find that's one of the more difficult things to do is to motivate children to brush. So if you give a child this little funky thing to brush with. They're very interested. And now we're brushing six surfaces and one Instead of only brushing one surface at a time. So our fun, especially with in my practice with the children. It's really caught on.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

Yeah, you know, listen, I'll be really honest with you. I, when I got that delivery, I don't really in my, in our practices we we're very old school we don't actually put out anything that we we don't get a chance to actually try it as best as we can, of course, not danger tablet, so anything like that at the moment. But luckily so we still have people who will still give us a little bit of feedback. Before I can get that into my rooms and by five year old was absolutely thrilled that you can brush the inside and the outside, tops and bottoms all at the same time. But you know I'm a dentist, so, as my husband I. How effective is this brush and do you have any stats for us?

Anike:

Yeah. So as weird and gimmicky as the belief looks, it is backed by some solid research. So Balene is a Spanish company. They are collaborating quite frequently with the University of Madrid. The team actually did a You're the data study right in the beginning where they compared the efficacy of the Balene brush versus a normal manual brush and what they found was when people brushed for 30 seconds it cleaned 75%, as well as a normal brush. When brushing correctly for two minutes, which is significant. If you think that the majority of brushing time is about 30 to 40 seconds, it's a drop in the bucket. So you know they've done sort of that study. They're also busy with more studies. They continually kind of, you know, put this thing through its faces, so that I know they're currently busy with the study with adults and children who have acquired brain damage and they're kind of testing how the Balene brush works for those patients. So we're really looking forward to seeing the results.

Anike:

But this brush has been properly scientifically tested. As part of IvoDent we also put products through a rigorous kind of peer-tasting process before we even bring it in. So any new product that comes in has to go through a dentist and oral hygienist, a dental therapist, a dental technician, and then you know most of our company who are like very finicky when it comes to dental products. I mean, ivodent really prides itself on being at the forefront of like innovative and very high quality products. So yeah, I mean it's. You know that's the first thing we look for. Is it properly scientifically supported? That's an absolute must for us.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

I think that you know it comes into that market where you quite rightly say that it's really tough to brush somebody else's teeth. And I have postgrading kids I've been doing kids for a long period of time and it's hard to actually get parents motivated when they go through brush after brush and it's tough to actually get children to want to get to brush their teeth. I think it's really exciting to see something that they think is also different and they think is innovative and they want to try it out. I think that's half your battle, one when somebody has more motivation to try something out. That, for me, was when I thought there's something to this brush and then I got surprised when you sent me an adult brush. So now tell me a little bit about the. You know, what part of the market are we looking at in terms of the adult brush? You know, like, is this for a carer or is this really for for any adult that has less time?

Dirna:

It is really for any patients I think the only patients that this will not do well in some patients that put really malaligned teeth, then this brush is maybe not for you, but otherwise, honestly, any patient can this will be absolutely grateful. The other thing that I just want to mention is that's also great about this is that the bliss brush lasts twice as long as a normal brush. In other words, you only need to replace a twice a year. One brush will last you about six months, which I think is absolutely great.

Dirna:

The other thing is brushing technique even for adults children, of course as well, but for adults as well and keeping that 45 degree angle is sometimes difficult and we forget, we think about 100 other things while we're brushing, where the bristles of this brush is already angled at 45 degrees. So not only do you reach all six surfaces at the same time, but you're doing that with the correct technique.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

So absolutely great yeah you know, listen, though the bristles are actually very different. So I want to know a little bit about these bristles, because the first time I looked at it, I thought, shucks, is that going to be really something that's going to be effective? Tell us a little bit about these bristles.

Anike:

Yeah, so these, these are not nylon bristles. When you look at the bristles they they really don't look like they're going to clean very well. But this is actually TPE bristles, so thermoplastic elastomer. It is a very soft silicone so it sweeps really nicely and kind of almost imitates that very soft toothbrush bristle. It's also coated in antibacterial material which they actually add into the mold before they before they kind of go ahead and make the brush. So that's part of why it lasts so long is because it isn't nylon, so it's not retaining any water, it's not retaining any bacteria. Yeah, it just lasts for a very long time. It's very comfortable. It's very soft. We've had people like surprised at how soft it was once they actually tried it, because it doesn't always look very soft.

Dirna:

I did find this mind when I started brushing it. It's almost like wearing in a shoe. You know, the first two, three brushes it felt a little bit more firmer and I kind of over the mold. I had to push a little bit harder to get it over, but I would say about after about three, four days it was really very easy to use and and it's got this head that you can swivel at 180 degrees. So what makes it even easier is, once you started your bite into it and you start to brush, you don't need to let go of the brush. You just swivel the handle from one side to the other side.

Anike:

So you're literally doing this. If this, it kind of works like a railroad track. You just gently bite down here, you just hold the brush like this and the head will kind of like turn. You don't have to let go of the brush, you don't have to change angles, you don't have to think and, like Dennis said, the bristles are already at 45 degrees. What's really cool here is also it has a little tongue scraper, so it actually does everything a traditional brush does, but better and quicker.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

Yeah, you know, listen, I think it's. It's two products where you really blew me away with the. The innovation, the technology, you know, the idea behind both of the brushes really takes you to that next level. I don't know if you ever remember when we weren't able to actually do any of these online anything and the world still worked without too much of anything else. This seems to be at that frontier where it's changing the way we see all Care and the way we do our oral health, and so I'm really excited and I want to thank both of you.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

You've shared your expertise and your time. I also want to thank I, over health, as part of open disclosure, used many, many of either health products, and I Continue to do so in our practices. I do not benefit from any of the sales of the products, but I do enjoy giving information about innovative products, and these are definitely some of the most inspiring and innovative Dental products in our market. In my opinion, they even exceed some of our global standards. So well done, thank you, and I'm looking forward to hearing from both of you again.

Anike:

Thank you, thank you.

Dr Shauntel Ambrose:

the best just to get through your worst. Never get the promotion and exceed the requirements. Join us to hear about strategies to build your brand. Diversify your business, pursue your career passions with job crafting and self-care for healthcare practitioners and you can also use your own options with job crafting and self-care for healthcare practitioners. Hear about great products that can help you to get to where you always want it to be. So remember you are heard and you are seen, and on this platform, you are absolutely invited. Let's make it happen together.