Design director, SoftServe · Healthcare · Eight-week proof of concept
Cigna smart toothbrush
Could a dental insurer serving 17M+ members turn a smart toothbrush into a preventive-care touchpoint between dental visits?
I led a 10-person remote team across research, product definition, device analysis, experience design, and technical prototyping. Cigna had explored connected dental care before, so we weren't starting from scratch. In eight weeks, we needed to determine what was actually possible: whether the device data was useful, what kind of experience it could support, and whether there was enough evidence to justify a next phase.
Between dental visits, the habit was mostly on its own
The dentists and front-desk staff we spoke with were already juggling patient context, benefit information, and material from multiple vendors. There was little room for sustained coaching between appointments—especially when many patients weren't visiting on a predictable six-month schedule to begin with.
Outside of those appointments, the people we interviewed had rarely been coached on how they brushed or flossed. Parents wanted to model good habits for their children, but struggled to maintain those routines themselves. About half of the prospective customers we spoke with were Cigna members, so the research intentionally reached beyond Cigna's existing member base.
The broader data showed a similar gap between intention and behavior. A 2015 ADA study found that 77% of adults planned to visit a dentist within the next year, while only 37% had done so in the previous year.
That suggested the opportunity was bigger than improving a single brushing session. What happened between appointments mattered, and for most people there was no one there to observe the habit, offer feedback, or help make it better.
Our hypothesis was that Cigna could use a connected toothbrush—either one a member already owned or one provided through the program—to make prevention more tangible between visits.
The model was already familiar in healthcare. Activity trackers and smartwatches didn't just count movement; they gave people feedback and helped turn an invisible behavior into something they could see and understand. Could a toothbrush do something similar for oral health?
Before designing too far ahead, we needed to know whether there was actually a useful signal to work with.
First, prove there was a signal worth designing around
Cigna had investigated connected dental care before, so another speculative concept wasn't what the team needed. We began with a Clear Path Forward workshop and ecosystem mapping exercise, then interviewed 10 stakeholders, seven prospective customers, five dental professionals, and a benefits buyer. The goal was to understand where a connected service could be useful, where it would add friction, and what questions had to be answered before Cigna invested further.
In parallel, engineering analyzed a number of leading smart toothbrushes and recreated their data exchange with custom firmware. We narrowed it down to six. The brushes didn't all expose the same information, but the team was able to receive usable data from supported devices. Depending on the model, that included signals such as session duration, pressure, coverage, and brush state.
We did not wire the toothbrush hardware, data processing, and complete application into a production-like end-to-end system. That wasn't the question this proof of concept needed to answer. We needed to know whether the connection worked and what information we could reliably design around.
That distinction mattered. Once the signal was real, we could stop designing around an imagined smart toothbrush and start designing around what the devices could actually tell us.
The product direction followed from there: use brushing data to coach people in the moment, then reinforce healthier routines over time through challenges, progress, badges, points, and Cigna rewards. Rewards could give people a reason to come back. The coaching had to make coming back worthwhile.
Secondary research helped us understand how reported oral health varied across income, age, and time since the last dental visit.
The gap between intending to visit the dentist and actually going reinforced something we were hearing in interviews: information alone wasn't enough to change a routine.
We also looked at the business side of prevention. Avoiding more serious interventions gave Cigna a reason to explore what better preventive habits could mean beyond the individual brushing session.
The product vision brought those pieces together: member and dentist needs, toothbrush integration, the mobile experience, incentives, and Cigna's broader goals for preventive care.
A simple gamification model translated brushing duration, frequency, coverage, and app engagement into progress and rewards.
The device comparison gave us a practical boundary for the experience: which signals were commonly available, which depended on the manufacturer, and which concepts would need additional technical validation.
Turn the signal into feedback people could use
The experience began with pairing a compatible toothbrush, then put the brushing session at the center. Members could see duration, pressure, and coverage while they brushed, review their activity over time, and receive practical guidance based on their own data.
The important shift was from measurement to meaning. Knowing that someone brushed for a certain number of seconds wasn't especially useful by itself. Showing where they had missed, whether they were applying too much pressure, or how their routine was changing over time gave the data a job.
Family profiles came directly from the research. Parents wanted to build healthier habits with their children, even when their own routines slipped. That also meant a child's experience couldn't simply be a smaller version of the adult one. We explored ways to make brushing feel more playful through challenges, progress, badges, and rewards, while giving parents a clearer view of habits across the household.
A conversational coach extended the experience beyond an individual brushing session with education, encouragement, and a path back to dental care when needed.
Onboarding made pairing and personalizing a compatible toothbrush as simple as possible.
The brushing flow translated device data into live coverage, timing, pressure feedback, and a clear session result.
A conversational coach turned brushing history into practical guidance, encouragement, and answers about dental care.
Activity and family views made progress visible for an individual or across a household.
Challenges focused attention on one healthy behavior at a time and made progress toward rewards visible.
What I led
My role was to keep research, design, product, and engineering pointed at the same questions while moving the team from ambiguity toward decisions. I stayed hands-on across:
Framing the eight-week engagement around the questions Cigna needed answered before deciding on a next phase
Workshop facilitation, research, synthesis, and product direction
Connecting device capabilities and constraints to product and experience decisions
Experience design and design-system direction
Leading the design team while working closely with product and engineering
Client communication and alignment throughout the engagement
The remote team included two designers, a project manager, and seven other product and technology specialists. Together, we produced the proof of concept, application architecture, MVP backlog, gamification model, and a phased roadmap for what testing, development, and launch could look like next.
Enough evidence to make the next decision
By the end of eight weeks, the idea had moved well beyond a concept deck. We demonstrated that the prototype could connect to supported toothbrushes and receive useful data. We established which signals varied between devices. And we showed how that information could become live feedback, longer-term coaching, family participation, motivation, and rewards.
Just as importantly, Cigna had a clearer picture of what a next phase would involve: the application architecture, MVP scope, technical dependencies, gamification model, and a roadmap from further testing toward launch.
The concept did not move into production. Market conditions shifted, and Cigna redirected resources toward more immediate priorities.
For a proof of concept, the important outcome was the uncertainty it removed. Cigna now had evidence that the device connection could work, a clearer understanding of what the data could support, a product experience built around that reality, and enough definition to decide whether further investment made sense.
The smart toothbrush was the start. Coaching was the product.
The project answered the question we started with. A connected toothbrush could create a preventive-care touchpoint between dental visits, but the hardware itself wasn't the product idea.
The interesting part began after the data arrived: turning a repetitive everyday behavior into feedback people could understand, guidance they could act on, progress they could see, and—for families—a routine that could feel a little easier to keep going.
The toothbrush created the touchpoint. What we did with that moment was the product.
