I saw a conversation between Julie and a reader named Carol in the quip electric toothbrush review yesterday. The gist of the conversation was that it seemed to be a normal toothbrush with a two minute quad-timer that told you how long to spend brushing each quadrant of your mouth. Many other electric toothbrushes have this quad-timer function, but those toothbrushes can be expensive – and not everyone wants to use an electric toothbrush. There are apps for smartphones that can time your brushing, but who wants to potentially end up with a foam-covered phone in the bathroom sink? I don’t always like to use an electric brush, but I do love that quad-timer function, so I went looking for a standalone timer. I found the Two Minute Turtle Timer.
Invent Boston, parents who needed, and invented, a method to help their children know how long to brush their teeth for best results. The Two Minute Turtle Timer is a turtle-shaped circuit board, battery, and four LEDs embedded in a 2″-diameter, 0.5″-thick plastic puck. Press a button, and one of the LEDs starts to blink for 30 seconds. When a second LED starts to blink, it’s time to move to the next quadrant. This continues for a full two minutes to guide you or your child through cleaning your entire mouth. Assuming two button presses a day, the battery in the Two Minute Turtle Timer will last three years. The Timer comes with a piece of Velcro to attach it to the bathroom mirror.
A single Two Minute Turtle Timer is $24.95, a family pack of three timers is $54.95, and a wholesale pack of 20 timers is $380.00 for dentists who want to make them available to their patients.