Solar Power Toothbrush Is Real, Destroys Bacteria With Electrons

We don't know why we didn't think of it first. A solar powered toothbrush is exactly what we need. After all, your toothbrush sees the rays of the sun all the time, right? Oddly enough –or perhaps not–, we imagined that reading about a solar powered toothbrush wouldn't be interesting enough to give a second glance to, but sure enough, scientists over in Japan have managed to pique our interest. After all, if you create a toothbrush that's energized by solar power and can literally destroy bacteria without toothpaste, well, you deserve some attention.

The Shiken Company, based in Japan, is currently knee-deep in field trials of their Soladey-J3X. It was designed by Dr. Kunio Komiyama and Dr. Gerry Uswak, and the solar powered toothbrush features a solar panel at its base. It sips about the same amount of power that your traditional solar calculator would, so not much at all. But, what makes the Soladey-J3X even more interesting, is the way that it uses electrons. According to the designers, the toothbrush pushes electrons up from that solar panel, through a lead wire, and to the top of the brush.

Once the electrons arrive there, they have a reaction to the acids in your mouth, which subsequently manifests a chemical reaction that ultimately destroys the bacteria in your mouth, and breaks down plaque all at the same time. The researchers have been field testing the toothbrush for a little while now, and the results are better than they predicted. According to them, the toothbrush resulted in "complete destruction of bacterial cells." It's impressive that a toothbrush can "destroy" anything, especially the one thing it's designed to. No word on when, or if, these toothbrushes will ever see the light of day (no pun intended, we promise), but we can certainly start hoping.

[via TG Daily]