Mama Palmer ain’t no joke, y’all.

When I recently visited the original Casa de Palmer this Mother’s Day to spend time with the woman who gave me life, she gave me gifts to take back for the fam! For the boys, there were clothes and toys. For Sarah, magazines and a top. And for me, the eldest of her three darling children? Well….

Yeah—seems she wasn’t as keen on my BConnected headshot as I was (it’s my profile pic on every social media channel), and that I could brush up on a couple of physical attributes before I let a camera get that close. (#DadJoke.)

But it’s not like she’s wrong—remember that commercial from 20 years back when a kid calls his teacher’s teeth “mother of pearl”? Yeah. That’s sometimes how I feel about mine.

I mean, how do we get to this point? We’re taught how to brush our teeth in preschool. But somehow many of us build horrible habits that stain and wear our teeth away, dulling our smiles as we grow older.

But fortunately, toothbrush technology hasn’t sat still over the years, continually bringing us new ways to take better care of ourselves… and our teeth.

My friends—welcome to the Oral-B Genius 8000!

We’ve had electric toothbrushes for ages, but you’ve never seen one like this!

The Oral-B Genius 8000 (MSRP $269.99) is a Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush that not only does a better job of brushing—it teaches you how to improve, too! And yes, I know what you’re thinking—$269.99 is about $264.99 more than you’d pay for a regular toothbrush on your fanciest day, but let me tell you why the Oral-B Genius is absolutely dope.

1) You only get one smile.

Okay, this one should’ve been obvious—the same thing your dentist tells you every time you visit! $269.99 might cost more than a cleaning, yes, but it costs way less than it does to fill a cavity. Or do a root canal. Bonding, gum surgery, veneers… I think you get what I’m going for here. If you can invest in your smile knowing it’ll steer you down the right path, then what’s stopping you? Here are some features you’re just not getting with your manual brush:

Position Detection Technology

The first thing the Genius can do is figure out where you’re brushing! This is important because you can’t fix a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. So through the Oral-B App, the Genius uses your smartphone’s front camera and its built-in sensor to show you when you’ve brushed effectively. The app and the brush light up. The brush vibrates in your hand! Trust me, you’ll know. It’s the world’s first electric toothbrush that sees what you don’t!

Professional Timer

Helping you brush better is one thing, but what good is technique if you don’t apply it long enough? Dentists recommend we brush two minutes at a time, but 80% of us aren’t even doing half that! But with the Oral-B App’s built-in timer, it helps improve the minute manual brushers spend brushing on average to 2 minutes and 27 seconds across Oral-B App users!

Triple Pressure Sensor Technology

And finally, if you’re like me, you mangle the heck out of your brush because you brush too hard. Stats say I’m not alone—many manual brushers apply up to two times the dentist-recommended pressure without knowing it!

So the Genius uses Triple Press Sensor Technology to help up to 93% of over-aggressive brushers reduce their brushing force by switching to its sensitive mode and lighting up red when you push too hard! Protect your gums, y’all!

2) It’s a brush that’ll do what you want it to.

We probably don’t even think about it, but we’ve all got different goals with our brushing. This in mind, the Oral-B App has Dental Care Journeys, designed to help users meet their goals. Fresher breath, healthier gums, whiter teeth, plaque control—you can build a program that’ll help you do what you wanna do!

And it has some tools and settings to boot—a whitening setting and whitening brush head to go with it. A pro-clean mode that helps you clean tooth by tooth, reaching areas often missed for a superior clean. Modes for sensitive teeth and gum care. Heads with floss action and plaque removal. You can design the brushing you want!

3) It may as well be from the future.

Does your manual brush light up in a colour of your choice? Or come with a stylish travel case that can charge your brush and a smartphone at the same time? Its smartphone holder is removable and re-attachable for flexible use. And its battery lasts for 12 days of brushing between charges.  I think they’ve got it right—this brush is so smart, it’s genius!

The Oral-B Genius 8000 Electric Toothbrush — Just Like Having a Dentist at Home! (Unless You Already HAVE a Dentist at Home, but They Probably Keep their Tools at the Office, So the Point Still Stands!)

The modern toothbrush is about 1,400 years old, and the manual brush isn’t that far from what you’d see back in the Tang Dynasty. I mean, sure, it’s said if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but just because something worked for people in the 7^th century doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to do better.

The Oral-B Genius 8000 gives me a clean feeling I usually only get from a trip to the dentist! Capable of several thousand movements per minute to keep your mouth on point, I’m pretty sure my Mom will like what she sees the next time someone asks for a close-up!

As a Dad, I know it can be hard to find the time to take care of oneself, so it’s important we use the rare moments we find for self-care well.

May my fellow Dads find tools like these to be the men they want to be!

Until the next,

–case p.

Disclaimer: Oral-B compensated for this post, but all opinions remain my own.