Wear-out detection for an oral care device

Abstract

A wear-out assessment for an oral care system (14) (e.g. an oral cleaning device) is disclosed. A sensor unit (16) of the oral care system is adapted to provide a sensor signal related to a cleaning efficacy of a cleaning function of the oral care system. The sensor unit (16) may be, or may be coupled to, a component which is used during execution of an oral care function of the device, for example a sensor for detecting cleaning progress in the mouth, or a component which drives a cleaning or treatment action in the mouth. The sensor signal (20) is used for performing a wear-out assessment via monitoring characteristics of a signal which is indicative of progress of the oral cleaning efficacy during an operation session (e.g. a clean level in the mouth) and monitoring a length of time that it takes for a certain threshold of efficacy to be reached in a session. If the length of time is over a certain threshold, this can be an indication that the relevant components of the oral care system are wearing out.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.