A toothbrush for on the go.. (Fuzzybrush)

Member Name: beanie85

Product:	Fuzzybrush
Date:	24/12/08 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to carry around, not very expensive

Disadvantages: Didn't freshen my breath or make me feel refreshed at all!

When on a long car journey from Aberdeen to Birmingham we stopped at a service station and whilst using the toilets there I saw these 'fuzzy brushes' in a dispenser. I thought I would give one a go to freshen me up a bit. I can't quite remember how much it cost, I think it may have been 50p, it wasn't very expensive in any case, and I remember getting two of them for the money that I put in.

The idea of the fuzzy brush is that it is a handy little toothbrush that you can easily carry around with you so you can brush your teeth no matter where you are, and without water. The fuzzy brush is about 1.5cm tall and is made of plastic. There are soft plastic bristles on one end which looks a little like a toothbrush and this is coated in hard toothpaste. The fuzzy brush comes in a round plastic see-through ball which opens in the middle, and it comes with a little sheet of instructions with some pictures on it to show you how to use the fuzzy brush. On the instructions it claims that the fuzzy brush is an 'all in one disposable toothbrush and breath freshener'. It also says that it is not suitable for very small children. The packaging is quite handy since if you are carrying it around with you the brush will not get squashed or damaged.

To use the fuzzy brush you simply take it out of the plastic ball, pop it in your mouth and start chewing. Your saliva mixes with the hard toothpaste and it starts to rub on your teeth when you chew the little brush. The soft bristles are meant to clean your teeth as you chew.

When you open the ball and sniff the brush it smells a little like minty aniseed. I'm not too keen on aniseed and this smell put me off slightly.

As soon as you start chewing it you get quite a strong menthol taste but this quickly subsides, and it also tastes quite sweet. The brush is quite easy to manoeuvre around your mouth, though it is quite difficult to brush your front teeth with the brush. In order to do that you would have to hold the brush with your fingers and it would be quite tricky, and you would have to take it out of your mouth covered in spit and try to use it which would also be very messy. When the hard toothpaste started to get runny, it also felt quite grainy on my teeth which I didn't like. I also felt like I wanted to rinse my mouth out. I also didn't really like the thought of cleaning my teeth with hard toothpaste and my own spit.

I didn't feel like the brush particularly freshened my breath and I didn't feel refreshed in the slightest. It really doesn't give a thorough brush and I felt like swilling my mouth with a large glass of water. It doesn't replace a normal tooth brush at all, and I think I would have been better just having a piece of minty chewing gum or a mint.

I like the idea of these, I think it is a really clever, but I just didn't think it worked. If they were a little better I think they would be great to take camping and to music festivals where it can be hard to get fresh water to brush your teeth, but as they are I would rather have a strong mint instead, it would make my mouth feel a lot fresher than this did!

Summary: A good idea but it just didn't work