LEARN ABOUT HOW SWIV IS A BETTER TOOTHBRUSH FOR
EVERYONE
EVERYONE
EVERYONE
CREATING A MORE INCLUSIVE WORLD
DESIGNED FOR ALL ABILITIES
WHY IS TOOTHBRUSHING
SO HARD?
PHYSICAL
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL
To brush your teeth properly you need to have the necessary:
Which affects
Over 80% of people with cognitive disabilities have tooth decay and periodontitis, which are shown to be directly related to cardiovascular health.
Oral Health can also dictate a lot of a person’s social well-being. If someone has offensive breath, it may be harder to make friends or maintain a job.
Motor Skills
To brush effectively, you must contact the gum line at a 45 degree angle and with the ‘right’ amount of pressure. Doing so requires unnatural wrist movement and complex coordination.
Ability to Learn
Learning to brush your teeth properly with dentist-recommended methods requires chaining together 8 separate tasks. This can feel like an impossible challenge to any child, especially those with a cognitive disability.
Attention and Focus
It’s hard to keep track of the time you spend brushing your teeth. Dentists recommend a full two minutes, but most people struggle to even complete one minute of brushing.
We started Swiv with one goal: to help more kids with cognitive disabilities achieve independence in their daily self care.
Swiv is a toothbrush that reduces the physical, cognitive, and focus-based challenges through completely reimagining the motion used for effective brushing.
Swiv is a toothbrush designed to meet the demands of those with special needs but isn’t designed as a special needs product. We believe that creating solutions that solve the hardest problems are better for everyone, and we’ve made specific choices in the design to make Swiv a universal product that can be used by anyone.
The standard way to measure toothbrushing is by time. However, many people have a much shorter attention span! Counting is a common strategy used in behavior therapy and teaching communities. It creates a more tangible goal to accomplish and measure task completion.
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A larger handle makes the toothbrush easier to grip
The textured grip helps provide sensory grounding
Vibration can enhance cleaning effectiveness by helping to remove plaque
Detachable brush head allows it to be replaced, making it more sanitary, effective, and eco-friendly over time!
The pivoting brush head:
1) eliminates need for complex wrist movements while brushing.
2) enables user to track brushing with counts (easier) rather than time elapsed.
Unique bristle configuration can reach all exposed tooth surfaces and gum line at the same time.
Most toothbrushes that address people's needs are hand made by caregivers.
There has yet to be a commercial product that helps people with the physical and mental difficulties with daily toothbrushing.
THIS IS THE BEST HE HAS EVER BRUSHED!
-Liam's Mom
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Swiv received Honorable Mention for Fast Company's Innovation by Design: Best Student Design of 2019.
Swiv was showcased at the Global Grad Show in Dubai, during Dubai Design week in 2019.
THE TEAM BEHIND SWIV
We are a team of three co-founders that began working together in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to grad school, Jenna studied Fine Arts, Kevin studied Biomedical Engineering, and Victoria studied Mechanical Engineering. All three have Masters degrees in Integrated Product Design, which merges engineering, design, and business and focuses on a human-centered design process. We are a strong, balanced team that is passionate about bringing a product to reality that we believe will make a positive impact on the lives of many.
Victoria Fishman
Jenna Borges
Kevin Paroda