I tried the $299 Feno Smartbrush for cleaning teeth. That’s a mouthful

I couldn’t stop myself from giggling. A sudden giggle. I was brushing my teeth, but this was no ordinary toothbrush I was using.

That was it Feno Smartbrush — and with its 18,000 bristles, it moved over all my teeth, top and bottom, at the same time. The vibration was strikingly different.

My entire lower face was shaking, from my gums to the base of my jaw. It felt like a massage for my teeth, cheeks and craniofacial muscles surrounding my mouth. The frothy residue escaped onto my chin and chest.

Her mouth was full. In a good way.

For an anxious, teeth-grinding adult like me, the stupid visual in the mirror of my mouth vibrating for 20 seconds was worth the feeling that came with it. Plus, it removed all that pesky goji berry residue that always eludes my regular electric toothbrush.

The Smartbrush is a U-shaped device, with top and bottom parts like the mouth guards used by athletes, attached to a fist-sized handle that holds a power source and camera. It is the flagship product of Fenoa, a three-year-old company driven by the belief that “oral health transformation technology” is on the verge of a watershed moment.

It was created by Dr. Kenny Brown, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon who is also the CEO and co-founder of Fenn. He designed it to solve problems he saw firsthand in his patients.

“We believe oral health is your overall health,” Brown tells me when we meet at the Bioscience LAwhich for Feno doubles as a non-profit organization for health technology companies and its operation. “When it comes to oral hygiene, patients tend to fail in two aspects: time and technique.”

How many of us really take the 2-plus minutes recommended by dentists to brush our teeth? And are we really brushing as effectively as we should? Feno cuts the time down to just 20 seconds, and its Smartbrush does the work for you.

It’s a radically different approach than the usual options available for home oral care, and retails for $299 for a three-month starter kit. There are other cutting-edge high-tech devices, including Curaprok’s U-Shape Samba robotic toothbrush and the Philips Sonicare Prestige 9900which packs a bit of artificial intelligence into a more standard-looking electric toothbrush.

But none of those devices have Feno’s customization features, such as six variations of its U-shaped mouthpiece, top and bottom. Feno also excels at tracking and analyzing your brushing habits and your mouth as a whole, with reports through the $10 monthly Feno Plus membership designed to support long-term preventative care.

Brown’s training and experience is another differentiating factor.

What you get with the Feno Smartbrush

I did my research with Founder’s Edition package from $299which includes a Smartbrush (consisting of a Feno Smarthandle and SnapCharger), a TrueFit mouthpiece, three tubes of XiFoam mint-flavored toothpaste, a tongue scraper and three months of Feno Plus for access to personalized health insights and virtual oral health coaching.

First, I sent selfies of my mouth through Fen FitKitapp that allows the Feno team to map it, size it and pair it with one of six printers, and waited for my images to be analyzed and approved. The kit arrived in the mail a week later, in a large, well-designed box.

After unpacking, I downloaded the Feno app and connected it to my newly charged Smartbrush. (An Apple MagSafe-like charger attaches to the back of the Feno Smarthandle and looks a lot like a stethoscope.)

This is where I was able to customize my Feno experience. I was able to change brush speed and timing while the AI ​​followed my brushing rhythm. The vibration of the brush allowed me to maneuver it around the sides of my mouth, providing a pleasant jaw massage in the process.

For the next two weeks, I used the Smartbrush twice a day for 20 seconds. Once connected to the Feno’s Wi-Fi network (this won’t affect your home internet connection), I could also connect my Smartbrush to the Feno app, which tracked my brushing and scanning rhythm.

After brushing, I positioned the Smartbrush 10 inches from my face and pressed the button to record and send my oral health data to Feno’s team for feedback. With regular use, reports are returned every two weeks with insight into the condition of your teeth, gums, tongue and soft tissue, plus a digital health score, a summary of your mouth analysis and feedback to improve or adjust the mouth scan. With consistency, the built-in scanner will learn your mouth and record any changes that occur.

“(Over time) you’ll have the largest longitudinal data set at the mouth, and the effective data that will be done as easily as possible, so it can be done as easily as once a day,” Brown said. “Then you can get an insight into what’s going on in your mouth.”

Fenno’s evolution

After testing the Smartbrush, I visited Feno’s facilities, where the product is tested, packaged and shipped, to talk with Braun about the device, its AI integration, and the state of oral health care.

Feno’s prototyping space, fulfillment center and company office are located in the long, one-story exterior of the health technology center; “BioscienceLA” was written across its windows in blue and green letters.

Inside, shiny white plaster walls and squeaky clean floors make for a sleek, modern building interior.

Here you can find members of an equally passionate core team — eight people, including three dentists. (It’s also where Brown can be found talking to customers on the phone about post-purchase feedback.)

Our conversation took place in Fenn’s prototyping office, the largest of the three spaces I toured. Nearby, prototyping 3D printers emit a soothing hum and an ambient orange glow. The physical evolution of the Feno TrueFit mouthpiece lies to my right.

As an oral surgeon and entrepreneur, Brown is an anomaly, a black oral surgeon in an industry where just under 4% dentists, dentists and oral surgeons are Black. With his creation of the AI-powered Smartbrush, he is also a pioneer. He radiates a passion for oral care—and humanity.

(We’ll take a moment here to acknowledge another pioneer, Dr. Bobby Petersonthe famous Shark Tank orthodontist who invented the Big Mouth electric toothbrush.)

Brown estimates that nearly 50% of American adults have some form of gum disease and chronic inflammation. Feno, he says, could address this challenge with “full-mouth,” U-shaped products.

“The idea is better, faster, easier — but it also levels the playing field,” Brown said. “Doing this on the technology front shows, ‘Look, these solutions are for everyone.’ At the end of the day, it’s about serving others.”

TrueFit mouthpiece design

The TrueFit mouthpiece started with over 20,000 digital patient impressions to inform a mouth-sizing algorithm, which translated into over 100,000 designs of different shapes, widths, heights and bristle configurations.

“It can be extremely risky and expensive to make thousands of prototypes. We used a combination of clinical knowledge, digital impressions, generative AI technology and 3D printing to help us create (ours),” Brown said. “Efficiency is the number one thing. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter.”

Brown and his team used generative artificial intelligence — custom algorithms written using Rhino 3D and Grasshopper design software — to test and optimize for the most effective mouthpiece, including features like “bristle contact with tooth surfaces and gum line.” Those iterations became several hundred 3D-printed prototypes, again tested on patients to ensure clinical standards.

Today, Feno has six variations of TrueFit mouthpieces that differ in the dimensions of the dental arch, jaw and oral cavity, depending on the needs of the customer. Whether it’s arch width or depth, a crooked tooth or gum recession, the goal is for all 18,000 bristles on your Feno TrueFit mouthpiece to touch all of your teeth — 250 strokes per tooth — so you can brush within 20 seconds. The smart handle will pause and alert you to ease your brushing pressure if needed.

The TrueFit mouthpiece connects to the Feno Smarthandle, which uses camera vision, an artificial intelligence that can analyze visual data. Every time you scan your mouth with the Smarthandle’s built-in scanner, it tracks signs of poor oral health or abnormalities to watch out for and compiles them into a data report.

Although these insights are not considered diagnostic, Feno has quality-checked information from a dentist for precision and accuracy.

“We really try to be intentional about what we give to customers,” Brown said. “Seeing people and meeting them where they are is the best form of caring, something you can’t capture any one tech. That’s humanity.”

My experience with Feno Smartbrush

For me, in that two-week test drive, the Smartbrush worked.

My gums hurt at first (Feno notes that this could happen), but my teeth were…cleaned, as if all 18,000 bristles, vibrating in different directions, had pulled all the plaque out of my mouth.

As new as Feno is to the market, there is still much to be discovered about how well the Smartbrush works and what the oral analytics reveal over time. At $299 upfront plus $10 per month, this system asks you to make a significant investment. Still, I’m intrigued by this innovative approach.

After my trial, I decided to keep my Smartbrush. For the past three years, I’ve been told by two different dentists that I’ll need veneers before I’m 40. (An alarming statement for a 29-year-old who has had braces twice.) Every six months, I leave my braces behind. review increasingly concerned about what’s going on in my mouth—or, in Brown’s terms, in my body—with no solution or long-term plan. Maybe this is the start of one.

As always, as a smart consumer, you should do your research, talk to your dentist, and consider your comfort level with spending on an expensive state-of-the-art device.

Along with brushing your teeth, twice a day.