Colgate Wisp Disposable Toothbrush Review

Part of the fun of ordering from Drugstore.com is that sometimes whoever packs your order will throw in a free introductory sample of a new product and so it came to pass that, as I was unpacking a shipment the other day, I ended up staring riveted at something I had never seen before ... the Colgate Wisp Disposable Toothbrush.  This was a new one on me and that is unusual since I am a veteran of many survey sites and know all about most products before they even appear in the stores.  I have got to admit that I would have never dreamt that someone would come up with the Wisp.  It seemed bizarre to me but the siren song of getting a chance to review something else was too strong to resist.  With some difficulty, I wrested the little rascal from its plastic bubble wrap and carefully proceeded to use it.  I won't sugar-coat it -- suffice to say that brushing with the Colgate Wisp Disposable Toothbrush was one of my worst oral care experiences since the day I ran out of toothpaste and tried to wing it with plain baking soda instead.

STATS:

The Colgate Wisp Toothbrush is an itsy-bitsy plastic instrument roughly resembling a miniature toy toothbrush suitable for use on an American Girl doll.  The brush is almost three inches long and has a small oval bristled head which contains a very small "freshening bead" of something which I assume is toothpaste.  Wisp Toothbrushes come in three flavors ... Peppermint, Spearmint and Cinnamon.  Brushing with this instrument is purported to require no water or rinsing which leads me to believe that this has been designed to be used in moments when discretion is important -- perhaps at one's desk after lunch or surrepticiously on a date or during the course of a trip.  No matter where it is used, I think that this gadget is really a bad idea.

DRAWBACKS:

It's not unusual to be confronted with a choice of "Hard", "Medium" or "Soft" bristles whilst purchasing a toothbrush.  None of those designations begins to describe the Wisp's bristles which are hard enough to scrub itsy bitsy cement pavement!  Even with me looking into a mirror and exercising exquisite care, brushing with the Wisp was a painful experience and I could barely finish the task.  There is hardly enough freshening-bead paste to cleanse one's mouth but you can forget that business about not needing to rinse with water afterward.  In a word, YECH! 

MY VIEWPOINT:

If you care about the environment even a smidge -- and most of us do -- the worst quality about the Colgate Wisp Toothbrush is that it is disposable -- designed to be used once and dumped.  Discarding a regular-sized plastic toothbrush once every six weeks or so is one thing -- now can you imagine what it would be like if even half of us started ditching hundreds of these itsy-bitsy things every year? 

My understanding is that we have to select at least one star to post a legitimate review and I suppose someone deserves at least one star for hatching an oral care idea which was (let's face it) something different.  That the Colgate Wisp Toothbrush is an unprecedented new invention cannot be disputed -- and that's just what someone must have thought when they developed nuclear bombs back in the '40s!