Colgate 360 review

Back when I was working on slides for Professional Development Day, I wanted a picture of a toothbrush to include as another everyday object made out of plastic. I went to Colgate's website first because, well, I'm a Colgate girl. And there, I saw an entire minisite devoted to their new toothbrush, the Colgate 360. Its features and design intrigued me, and since I figure it's almost always a good time to replace a toothbrush, I started looking for it whenever I was at grocery stores. Yesterday, I finally got one.

Now, I know a lot of you probably think toothbrushes, especially manual ones, are already complicated enough. They have different types of bristles, an angled head, an uneven bristle distribution, etc. Won't an ordinary rectangular brush work? I would say no, but then, I'm picky. What excited me most about this toothbrush is that it seems to be a new outlook on an old and familiar device. Though Colgate, Crest, and Oral-B are all constantly making minor adjustments to their toothbrushes, the basic design has remained the same for the last five years or so. The 360 seems to have incorporated a lot of features that really give the mouth a cleaner feel. This toothbrush has a new bristle design with tight-packed bristles in some locations and the standard arrangement in others. In the middle of the brush part are three soft rubber polishing cups. On the opposite side of the bristles is a soft rubber nubby pad that you can use to clean your tongue. As you brush with the toothbrush, this tongue cleaner massages your inner cheeks, which feels good and makes everything seem cleaner. There are soft, spongy rubber pads for your thumb and forefinger, and the length of the brush has soft rubber ribs. Overall, these comfort features make it very easy and comfortable to control the brush for the three minutes you are brushing and reading your comics/blogs (at least that's how I make myself brush long enough).

I have to say that I couldn't be much happier with this new toothbrush. I felt almost like I was leaving the dentist after brushing my teeth last night and this morning. My only complaint is that the tight-packed bristle color is not the same as the color of the grip (hey, what can I say--I'm a girl!)

Way to go, engineers and human-factors people!