Lab quality mouthguard cleaning, from your home.

By harnessing the power of enzymes and microbes, our (undisclosed) client builds biological solutions to a range of environmental and everyday household challenges. One such challenge is that of mouthguard hygiene - as over time, these become a minefield of bacteria, and it is close to impossible to keep them clean at home.

The ask

In partnership with Prehype and one of their corporate partners, the project revolved around finding solutions and business models around the use of a particular type of enzyme suitable for oral hygiene - as it works by removing bio-film. These explorations involved two parallel but dependant tracks, one focussed on the design and the other on the technology. Specifically, we worked on a tabletop device for the home that automates the cleaning process, thereby encouraging regular cleaning by making the process effortless.

The product

GuardWash is a compact bedside table device that automatically cleans your mouth guard through the use of enzymes. Simply add clean water, the enzymatic capsule, and let the device go through a wash cycle of UV-C, ultrasonic, and rinsing. Let the magic happen while you are out of the house and have your clean-as-new mouth guard ready for you before bed.

Technology

Alongside this, we explored various technical approaches to ensure the product we devised was feasible to produce, and proving that the mouthguard was cleaned to the highest standards using a combination of enzymes, UV-C and ultrasound. The project culminated in a functional proof-of-concept that was then used to test our client’s business case.

Samples arranged for analysis after different combinations of cleaning settings have been tested

Industrial design

Using our Product Lab framework, we brought our client’s vision to life using 3d modelling and rendering - making the product feel real and giving the ability to test how target users would respond to such a product. Would they buy it?

The design was grounded by the parallel track focusing on technical research and prototyping.