Member Article

Brushing away dental problems

A North East based company is developing a product that could herald a new era in oral hygiene. Entrepreneur Roberto Giordan’s company VS Oraltech is developing a device that negates the need for standard single head toothbrushes.

Having worked in the professional dentistry sector before, he relocated to the UK to set up VS Oraltech and work with healthcare professionals to develop the new brush. VS Oraltech is currently in its research stage and its aiming to perform initial clinical trials run by Newcastle University in early 2008. The concept involves developing a “gumshield” type device with specially angled bristles to ensure all teeth are cleaned when brushed.

Roberto said: “Essential toothbrush design has not changed for decades. They work, but only when used constantly and correctly by everyone, however the hard evidence is that unfortunately more than 80% of the population do not use them properly. We developed this product to simplify and automate the whole teeth cleaning process and it does it all within one minute.”

The aim of the new device is to remove any dexterity issues and human error factors, which currently affect the performance of existing toothbrushes.

Roberto appointed engineer Gary Thompson as project manager who brought together a technical team to develop the idea. Stakeholders include the UK’s leading bristle specialist Stoddard, Circuitree as electronic specialists and Paragon Rapid Technologies for prototyping.

Gary said: “I am extremely pleased that the UK can still attract young talented entrepreneurs from abroad and in particular we can prove that with a good engineering design approach many products could still be reliably and cost effectively manufactured in our country without the need to re-locate in the Far East.”

The company worked with Professor Peter Heasman and Dr Giles McCracken from the University of Newcastle Dental School who will collaborate through the research and testing phases to ensure efficiency and reliability of the final product.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .