BTW, that tube also has a sticky strip on it, so you can mount it on your mirror or bathroom wall (like in this picture).

Do you have heart-eyes yet? Because that’s the goal. Creators Enever and May, who both have a background in product design, told me they see Quip as a health startup, and think that maybe if you really loved your toothbrush, you’d use it more. (FWIW, the American Dental Association backs the claim that a lot of people aren't brushing enough.) As more people get on board with the idea of everyday objects “sparking joy,” it seems like the right time to make that argument.



The modern design is also closely tied to Quip's secondary mission: taking down Big Toothbrush. OK, those are my words, not theirs. (Enever actually specifically said to me in an email, “It’s not very ‘Quip’ to attack other brushes directly.”) But the founders claim — as startup founders are wont to do, so, ready your salt grains — that the bells and whistles most existing electric toothbrushes offer (like “tooth whitening mode”) aren’t really necessary from a dental health POV and are only added to upsell people. And, their argument goes, if you don’t need to power a bunch of features that more there for marketing than for your mouth, you can design an electric toothbrush that runs on one AAA battery and is hell of a lot sleeker than the current offering.

The Brushing Experience

Aside from getting you to brush more, Enever and May really want people to brush their teeth properly — which is why the “instructions” that come with the Quip are mostly about how to brush your teeth correctly. (They also said if you’re using anything other than a soft-bristle toothbrush — manual or electric — you’re basically destroying your gums.) At first I was like, UH, COOL, GUYS, BUT I’M NOT IN KINDERGARTEN, and tossed the booklet aside without really reading it. (Also, if you want to learn how the toothbrush actually operates — which I did — you have to go to their website, which double pissed me off.) Then I realized that it’s *possible* that I’m not an A+ student when it comes to my brushing technique (who’s to say, honestly?) so maybe I should stop yelling? (JK, I’m never going to stop yelling.)



The Quip is pretty much what I’d expect from an electric toothbrush: two minutes of brushing, with a ping every 30 seconds to let you know to move the brush to a different part of your mouth. That’s not special; every electric toothbrush I’ve ever had does this.



However, I was surprised by Quip’s ~vibes~...as in, the vibrations. The Quip is like a purring cat, while the Sonicare is more Crotch Rocket-esque. (Consider this: If I pull the Sonicare out of my mouth while brushing, I’ll end up spraying toothpaste all over the mirror. That doesn’t happen with the Quip.) The Quip is also a lot quieter. According to Quip’s founders, it’s quiet enough that parents can brush their teeth without waking up any little ones sleeping in the next room, but my barren uterus and I can neither confirm nor deny this.