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You won’t find your most personal audio in your iPod, Zen, Sansa or Zune, but in your mouth: Tooth Tunes is a new toothbrush that transmits music to the ear by vibration through the user’s teeth and jawbone. It sounds for exactly two minutes, just the time that most dentists recommend to brush your teeth.

Tooth Tunes is a toothbrush that Hasbro, the American toy maker, expects to launch before Christmas for 7 pounds (13 €). It will be targeted to children, and they expect it to ‘single-handedly change children’s attitudes to brushing’.

Apparently, the brush handle contains a microchip, storing a single piece of music, and a player that transmits music to the inner ear by vibrating on the teeth and jawbone, so the user hears ‘a cross between the sound of music coming out of a stereo and the sound of humming to oneself’. Meanwhile, other people nearby only hear a buzzing noise like the one of an electric toothbrush.

The microchip can be replaced, so you will be able to choose which tune you hear while you are brushing. Hasbro is supposed to be negotiating music rights with Will Smith and the Black Eyed Peas. In all cases, the music piece plays for exactly two minutes, the amount of brushing time recommended by dentists every morning and every night.

We must say that all of the above comes from a Glen Owen story in the Daily Mail, and we have been unable to find anything about the Tooth Tunes in several Hasbro’s websites (should any of our readers be more lucky, please let us know by posting a comment). We were a bit dubious, but April’s Fools Day has past, so we tend to believe it. Actually, Owen refers minutiae such as Hasbro’s six years of research with the system on products that get into your mouth, such as lollipops, pens, forks and spoons, and we have found the patente of a Sound-transmitting amusement device and method that seems to be behind the Sound Bites lollipops, that we’re told never got to the market. (It seems more than fitting that after the candy comes the toothbrush, anyway).

Meanwhile, we’ve also noticed that the Tooth Tunes is not the first noise-making toothbrush. Jordan sells the Click, that makes just what it says: it clicks when you brush too strongly (aparently, 3 out of 4 people do). However, Jordan’s system is a mechanical affair.

By the way, it was our contributor David Pogue who pointed out the Tooth Tunes to us. On his NY Times blog, David collects some funny comments by readers about the device. We’re falling for these two: But remember, that’s one song per toothbrush. And you can’t transfer songs to your dental floss or toothpicks, or your friend’s toothbrush and Damned DRM! (Dental Rights Management)

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