Philips’ new smart toothbrush shows you where you didn’t properly brush
The Verge Andrew Liszewski
Philips built a toothbrush with AI that tracks exactly where you missed while brushing. It maps your mouth in real time and lights up the spots you skipped orange.
Based on reporting by The Verge, Andrew Liszewski — read the original for the full story.
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Philips wants to fix the oldest lie in personal hygiene: everyone thinks they brush well, and almost nobody actually does. The company's answer is the Sonicare Next-Generation DiamondClean 9900 Prestige, an electric toothbrush running a third-generation AI model that watches your technique and calls out the parts you're phoning in.
The setup is straightforward enough. A glowing ring on the brush's base gives live feedback as you go, and a touchscreen splits your mouth into twelve segments, coloring each one blue or orange depending on how thoroughly you covered it. Orange means go back and try again. It's a small gamification trick, but a useful one if you're the type who brushes for twenty seconds and calls it a day.
Philips also leaned into pressure control, which has always been the quiet villain behind receding gums. The ring changes color as a warning when you're pressing too hard, and the brush itself has pressure sensors that automatically ease off the bristle intensity rather than just scolding you and hoping you listen. There are eight brushing modes on offer, covering things like gum health, a max-clean setting, and a gentler sensitive mode, all selectable by swiping through the touchscreen.
None of this is cheap innovation for its own sake — Philips is clearly betting people will pay a premium for a brush that nags them intelligently. Previous Sonicare flagship models have run $430, and the company hasn't priced the 9900 Prestige yet, though it's fair to assume it lands north of that. The brush is set to arrive in Europe and the US this fall, with a broader international rollout not expected until 2027, which is a long runway for what is, at the end of the day, still a toothbrush.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
A toothbrush with a third-generation AI model and a touchscreen sounds absurd until someone admits they've been missing the same molar for a decade. Still, the real test here is whether people actually change behavior when a device tells them they're doing it wrong, or whether the orange zones just become the new snooze button. Philips is betting on discipline through guilt-by-color-coding, and honestly, dental hygiene might be one of the few places where that trick actually works.
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