Design: Get a grip

Take the strain from oral hygiene. Look out for the Rotilt revolution!

Believe it or not brushing your teeth can be hazardous. Curious about toothbrush use, Glasgow dentist Glen Heavenor noticed that conventional toothbrushes led to awkward wrist movements – and bad oral hygiene. He began studying toothbrush design. He discovered that poor handle design forced users to raise the upper, brushing arm into a position parallel to the floor. This creates fatigue and, if you brush your teeth often enough, possibly RSI.

Heavenor began to experiment with a new means of holding and manipulating toothbrushes. In recent years, ergonomists have improved handle shapes and textures, but not hand, wrist and arm posture. However the 50-year-old Heavenor has designed a multi-purpose handle which increases control, and reduces joint strain and muscle ache.

He began with the idea that a handle that wouldn’t cause strain should mimic the human wrist itself. ‘I had no background in product development or marketing. But I realised that what I was doing with the toothbrush could be applied to anything with a bad handle. So I started working on a number of prototypes’.

For seven years, he toiled away in his ad-hoc laboratory – a cupboard under the stairs, resulting in the Rotilt.

The Rotilt uses ergonomic technology, based on the mammalian longbone. ‘I was lucky enough to stumble upon something that is part and parcel of nature. I applied it so that when you grasp the handle, it actually becomes an extension of your own forearm!’

While toothbrush manufacturers were initially dismissive of his invention, he patented the Rotilt. It was snapped up by Danish company Scanpan, who integrated the handle into a cookware range.

The Rotilt works for both right and left-handers and has an aesthetic appeal. In fact, it’s really quite stylish. ‘I think the fact that it does look stylish definitely helped with the marketing side of the Rotilt’, says Heavenor. ‘I think the cookware company were initially happy to promote it only on the basis of its looks!’

Now, a wide range of companies have included the Rotilt technology in their product development programmes. You can find Rotilt handles on baby strollers, hairbrushes and gardening tools. Heavenor envisages the handle being used for everything from cutlery to razors, hammers, pens and even musical instruments.

‘I've been told by people with RSI that it makes a huge difference. It’s great for hairdressers who are using them all day’.

Heavenor’s still hoping that his revolutionary ergonomic invention will solve the problem he initially wanted to tackle – people not brushing their teeth properly.

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