Frequently asked questions

Whiten is an oral care habit tracker for iOS, sometimes described as Duolingo for oral care. Instead of just timing your brushing, Whiten helps you build and stick with a full daily routine: brushing, flossing, tongue cleaning, mouthwash, and retainer or aligner care. It uses streaks, scores, reminders, and challenges to make consistency feel obvious and rewarding.

Whiten turns your brushing and flossing routine into a clear daily plan you can actually follow. You see what to do next, when to do it, and how you are doing over time. Reminders nudge you at the right moments, streaks reward consistency, and your Whiten Score reflects how complete your day actually was, not just whether you remembered to brush.

Most people quit flossing because it is easy to forget and slow to feel rewarding. Whiten helps by giving flossing its own dedicated reminder, tracking it as part of your daily routine, and rewarding you with a streak you can watch grow. Pairing flossing with something you already do, like brushing at night, and logging it in Whiten right after is the fastest way to make it stick.

Whiten gives flossing its own reminder so it does not get lost inside your brushing routine. You can log flossing in seconds, watch your streak update, and stay aware of whether you are actually keeping it up. The goal is to make remembering to floss something that happens automatically, instead of something you rely on willpower for.

No. A brushing timer counts two minutes. Whiten tracks your broader oral care routine — brushing, flossing, tongue cleaning, mouthwash, retainers, and more — and helps you stay consistent over weeks and months, not just during a single brush. Most people need more than a timer to build the full routine, and Whiten is built around that idea.

Whiten tracks the parts of oral care most people skip: brushing, flossing, tongue cleaning, mouthwash, retainer or aligner care, and photo check-ins of your teeth over time. Each one logs into your daily routine and feeds your Whiten Score and streaks, so you can see what you actually do, not just what you mean to do.

Your Whiten Score is a daily measure of how complete your oral care routine was, covering brushing, flossing, tongue cleaning, mouthwash, and any other habits you are tracking. It rewards consistency over intensity, so a strong score reflects following the whole routine, not just brushing harder. Over time, it is a clear signal of how dialed-in your daily habits actually are.

A streak counts the days in a row that you have stayed on top of your routine. Streaks make showing up feel real — the longer you go, the more you do not want to break the chain. Pairing a streak with a specific habit you keep skipping is one of the simplest ways to finally make that habit stick.

A freeze can protect an activity streak when life gets in the way. If you miss a day — traveling, sick, exhausted — a freeze can keep that activity streak alive instead of resetting it to zero. The point is not to be perfect; it is to come back the next day. Freezes are limited so they stay meaningful, and they exist to make the system forgiving without being pointless.

Challenges are short, focused goals layered on top of your daily routine, like completing morning and night brushing consistently or finishing full routines across the month. They give habit accountability a clear finish line. Most people stick with daily challenges longer than open-ended goals because the end is in sight and the progress is visible.

Yes. Nighttime is the part most people skip when they are tired, even though it is a key part of many oral care routines. Whiten lets you set reminders for your nighttime routine and log each step quickly before bed, so you can see whether you actually finished, not just whether you brushed. The goal is not just brushing every day — it is completing your routine before sleeping.

A normal alarm goes off at a fixed time whether you have done the thing or not. Whiten reminders are tied to your routine, so they can nudge you around the habits you still need to log instead of acting like a generic alarm. Less noise, more useful.

No. Whiten is a habit-building app, not a medical or dental service. It helps you stay consistent with the routine you and your dentist agree on, but for diagnoses, treatment, or anything specific to your teeth or gums, please see a licensed dentist. Whiten is meant to support good habits, not substitute for professional care.

Yes. Whiten is free to download from the App Store, and the everyday habit-tracking features — your routine, reminders, streaks, and Whiten Score — are usable from day one. The goal is to keep building consistent oral care habits as accessible as possible for anyone who wants to start.

You can start using Whiten right after download. Setup is short, and the focus is on getting you logging a routine the same day you install. Any account features are there to keep your progress safe over time, not to gate the core habit tracking.

Whiten is iOS-only today. Building an oral care habit tracker that is actually consistent and pleasant to use takes focus, so we started on iPhone. An Android version is not ruled out, but for now Whiten lives on the App Store.