The origin of the Slate Electric Flosser began with Dr. Danny Snyder in the Summer of 2019. One evening while flossing his teeth, Dr. Snyder had a unique idea. He had been using a handled flosser for close to 20 years, and it often sat next to his electric toothbrush. “What if the flosser was also electric?” he thought. So, Dr. Snyder turned on his Sonicare toothbrush, held it alongside his handled flosser, and began to floss. He immediately noticed that the floss slipped between his tight contacts better with the added vibration and upon finishing his evening routine, his gums felt tingly and fresh.
“Surely someone has already invented this,” he thought. But after an hour of searching online for the product he wanted, Dr. Snyder realized it didn’t exist yet. At that moment the idea for the Slate Electric Flosser materialized. After months of fiddling with existing flossers and splicing them together with old electric toothbrushes, Dr. Snyder and Brynn Snyder made the brave and risky decision to invest their life’s savings in creating the Slate Flosser prototype.
The flosser itself, of course, went through many evolutions. This resulted in the 3-in-1 design we know and love. Dr. Snyder wanted this product to be the only thing a person needed outside of their toothbrush to clean EVERY area of their mouth. That meant sonic vibrations to make flossing more effective and stimulate the gums, gum sweeps to access the pockets in between teeth and clean along the gumline, and a tongue scraper to remove leftover bacteria. Every bit of the Slate Flosser is designed to be functional.
Slate Dental, Inc. was officially founded in the summer of 2021 with a Kickstarter launched in October 2021. The success of their Kickstarter campaign laid the foundation for Slate’s current brand and business. As the brand began to grow, Brynn took on the challenging role of CEO. She has navigated Slate through a variety of growing pains, including the demands of a rapidly expanding business and social media presence.
With a husband and wife duo at the helm, Slate is truly a family business. Brynn joked that their five children are their favorite product testers. Watching their kids use the Slate Flosser has been an effective way to evaluate their product. Do they scrape their tongues after flossing? What problems are they encountering? Is there any buildup on the product? How are they actually using it? There’s no way to know what every consumer’s environment looks like, but they do know what their family environment looks like!
At the end of the day, the expertise of both Brynn and Dr. Snyder has set Slate up for success. Their combined knowledge of the dental industry and the business world allows them to confidently move forward with a truly revolutionary product. The dental industry has begun to take notice of Slate, recognizing how connected oral health, particularly gum health, is to the overall health of the body.
When asked what his favorite feature of the Slate Flosser was, Dr. Snyder said, “That people actually use it!” We have reliable data that shows our product alters people’s behaviors and turns occasional flossers into everyday flossers. Brynn added, “We want to make it so easy and effective that people don’t have any barriers to flossing.” With its ergonomic handle and functional design, we believe Slate is accomplishing that goal. Don’t have your Slate Flosser yet? Click here to become part of the flossing revolution!