In mid-October, a story in Crain’s New York Business recounted a Manhattan-based dentist’s report of a peculiar surge in the number of his patients – many of them high-level corporate executives – with cracked teeth and sore jaws.
The dentist’s diagnosis: They were gnashing their teeth in their sleep. Why? Stress from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a volatile stock market.
Add to that the faltering economy and omnipresent threat of layoffs, and it seems reasonable that more than just Wall Street types would be vulnerable to the unhealthy habit. But more teeth gnashing could mean more sales for a Rhode Island startup company.
BruxCare Inc. of Providence launched its new product, Grind Alert, at the Yankee Dental Congress in Boston last week. Company founders say the product is the first-ever practical, non-invasive device to relieve bruxism, or the unconscious habit of grinding teeth.
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Bruxism results in worn enamel and loose or broken teeth, and eventually can lead to a serious jaw condition called temporomandibular disorder (TMD), which is associated with a number of painful symptoms, including migraine headaches and chronic face and neck pain.
Contemporary treatments for bruxism and TMD include everything from muscle relaxants and dental work to psychotherapy, but the most common interdiction is a "nightguard," which is a custom-fit piece of plastic patients wear to protect their teeth from nighttime grinding.
An article in the Journal of the American Dental Association several years ago estimated that as many as 20 percent of Americans damage their teeth from grinding, and they spend $1 billion annually on the plastic mouthpieces.
"The main shortcoming with nightguards is that they don’t stop the underlying habit," said BruxCare Chief Executive Officer Nick Kondon, adding that patient compliance can be a problem because many people don’t like to sleep with a piece of plastic in their mouth.
Grind Alert is a lightweight, wristwatch-sized sensing device sewed into a nylon headband. The battery powered device uses biofeedback to sense facial and temporal muscle activity, detecting when a user begins teeth grinding and then emitting a faint beeping signal. If the user doesn’t stop grinding, the beeping gets louder.
BruxCare has been testing and fine-tuning Grind Alert prototypes ever since Kondon’s chance encounter three years ago with Providence dentist Dr. Lawrence J. Dario. The two had been discussing another venture when Dario mentioned his idea for a non-invasive way to detect and interdict bruxism.
Kondon, a Rhode Islander who has successfully launched several technology startups, did some research and was intrigued by the opportunity: a big market that spends lots of money on what he says are inefficient solutions.
Along with Kondon, BruxCare’s co-founders include a group of MIT-affiliated faculty, who designed the device. Advanced Electronics Inc., a Boston manufacturer of medical instruments and other electronics, recently manufactured 1,000 Grind Alert units, and BruxCare expects to order 5,000 more by July.
Kondon said Grind Alert’s unveiling at the dental show in Boston – which in the past has drawn as many as 25,000 attendees – marks the official launch of BruxCare, which raised more than $500,000 in private financing to bring the product to market. He said the company plans a national rollout this year as the device is shown at dental shows in Chicago, Houston, California and other locations.
The company projects revenue of nearly $1 million this year and $4.5 million in 2003. Although Kondon would not disclose the price of the Grind Alert device, he said it would be comparable to the price of a nightguard prescription, which he said can range anywhere from $300 to $1,500.
While Kondon claims that nightguards are inferior because they do nothing to curb the grinding habit, one dental expert says that the plastic protectors still might be the best treatment for bruxism.
"The idea is not to eliminate teeth grinding but to protect from the effects of teeth grinding," said Noshir Mehta, chairman of general dentistry and director of the Oral and Facial Pain Center at Tufts School of Dental Medicine in Boston. Mehta said that audible detection might prove effective in curbing the habit for some people, but the problem in past clinical studies has been that the method is constantly waking up the user.
Kondon admits that the most common complaint from detractors is that patients trade teeth grinding for sleep deprivation. But he said people grind their teeth most often in lighter stages of sleep, so the beeping sounds don’t wake them out of a deep slumber.
Kondon also points to an independent test of the Grind Alert device last fall by Clinical Research Associates – a nonprofit research group that tests dental devices for efficacy – that shows the system stopped the majority of patients from bruxing.
"Every dentist I know sees bruxism on a frequent basis," said Dario, who plans to prescribe the Grind Alert device to some patients this week. "I think this is long overdue and I think the demand will be there."
