[evmar]

Looks neat! My wife is a dentist so I hear a lot about developments in this area.

The first question I have is about the business model — people already sadly often cut the dentist when cutting costs, so it seems like it would be hard to get a lot of people paying you $50-100 for a test whose outcome is either “you are ok” or “more costs incoming”. How do you see it working?

[shivampatel9]

We couldn’t agree with you more about people avoiding the dentist when cutting costs, which is always sad to see given the long-term importance of oral health. Our test is initially designed for the population of Americans who already don’t see the dentist, value the convenience of at-home care, and are interested in incorporating preventive health into their daily lives.

There is a large population of Americans (60 – 80MM) who regularly avoid seeing the dentist out of fear/anxiety or inconvenience, many of whom are millennials in major cities. Our goal is to provide these individuals an opportunity to understand their oral health in a non-invasive and convenient way, and then pair that with treatments delivered directly to their doorstep. Many of these treatments such as prescription toothpastes or mouthwashes are underutilized, largely because they are only effective if diseases like gum disease are caught early enough. Analyzing the oral microbiome enables us to do exactly that, and then we can remotely monitor patients to ensure that disease risk subsides. A major focus area for us is educating consumers about the impact of maintaining good oral health and preventing early signs of disease from progressing in order to avoid expensive procedures like cavity fillings and root canals in the future.