1 million ‘nudges’

The app motivates users to brush for two minutes whilst listening to songs taken at random from their device or from a playlist of favourite tunes. Downloaded in 171 countries, the app has evolved to include animated videos showing how to use floss, interdental brushes and a manual toothbrush.

Brush DJ contains the evidence-based information found in the latest ‘Delivering Better Oral Health’ toolkit and is an innovative patient-facing extension of the document, which appeals especially to young people.

The popularity of apps is remarkable with Apple recently announcing that 75 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store since its launch, with Google Play reporting over 50 billion downloads. 81 per cent of 13-18 year old phone owners in the UK own a smartphone and it is predicted that by 2019 5.6 billion smartphones will be in use around the world.

Ben Underwood, the dentist who developed the multi-award winning Brush DJ app is delighted with its growth. He said “The next update is in development and should help the app and videos become the default tool to encourage better self-home dental care. I hope the app will go some way towards reducing the estimated £1.5bn of NHS dental budget in England that is spent on the direct treatment of preventable disease”.