Corporate Profile: Ultreo By Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine

Ultreo, Inc., a new company located in Redmond, Washington, has generated a lot of buzz in the dental profession lately with its release of the first power toothbrush to use ultrasound waveguide technology coupled with sonic bristle action. Dentaltown recently spoke with Ultreo President & CEO Jack Gallagher and Professional Relations Manager Jeri Starrett, RDH, MSM, about the start-up company, its strong connection to the dental community and its revolutionary innovation in power toothbrushes.

How did your company get started? What was the initial idea that led you to believe you could build a better toothbrush?

Jack Gallagher: The initial idea came when I was visiting the University of Washington, evaluating making a personal investment in a company that had a medical ultrasound application. The inventor of that technology was Pierre Mourad, Ph.D., who works at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington and also has an assignment at the School of Medicine. We got to talking about power toothbrushes. He had an idea about how ultrasound could be used by a power toothbrush for truly efficacious results. It was nothing but a concept at that point in time. From there, I continued my conversations with Pierre and then got involved with a couple other people, who in the past had formerly worked with Optiva, the developers of Sonicare®, about forming a company around Dr. Mourad’s idea. The founders put in some money to get it going. We were also fortunate enough to receive about $300,000 in research and development grants from the state of Washington through the Washington Technology Center to fund our early research at the University of Washington.

You’ve spoken of Dr. Mourad from the University of Washington. Is there anyone else you’d credit with the innovations and creation of the company?

Gallagher: There’s a lot of people. Dr. Mourad had a team of scientists and engineers working in his lab at the University of Washington who were university employees. At the school of dentistry, there was Dr. Joel Berg who worked with us in the early days and connected us with others in the dental school such as Dr. Frank Roberts who did much of the early research. That was essentially the original group.

One of the other things that’s important to note about your company is that you’ve started from scratch. How does a scratch-start company raise money to develop your idea?

Gallagher: We were fortunate. The first year that we were in business at the university, there was probably $600,000 required to do concept research – half of it came from the Washington Technology Center and the other half of it came from the founders and several of the early investors. So it was an efficient way to establish a company. Once we had proven out the concept, then we went out and raised $3 million from private individuals. Given our background – many of those private individuals were Optiva investors who did quite well. Other ones knew of the Optiva investment return and were anxious to get involved.

A number of our investors are dentists. To have dentist involvement is great because when we did our industrial design in terms of what colors we were going to use, the weight of the brush, the style of the brush and the advertising we developed, we would go to their offices and use their hygienists as focus groups. It was a tremendous advantage.

When you developed your idea and proved the concept, did you consider at that point just taking this idea and selling it to somebody vs. taking it all the way to market?

Gallagher: We always had the vision that we’d take this all the way to market. The reasons for that are one, we have the skills to do it, two, we have the ability to raise the money and three, when you get tied up with a big company, they’re liable to slow you down. At this point there’s no need for an alliance.

What were the biggest obstacles in getting the toothbrush ready to sell?

Gallagher: The biggest issue was the engineering. When I first spoke with Dr. Mourad, he was talking about a transducer you put in the brush head and an ultrasound waveguide on the face of the brush head that transmits the ultrasound, I thought you just went out and bought a transducer and put it there. But what we found out was that you have to construct a transducer that’s specific to your application with a specific power level and design. Even the ultrasound waveguide has to be a certain material and a certain shape to effectively conduct the ultrasound. It took us two years of constant experimentation. As for the rest of the product, it’s very nice, but power toothbrushes have been done many times before.

Are there any other dentists who should be recognized?

Gallagher: The primary dentist we should recognize is Dr. Joel Berg, who’s a co-founder of the company. Dr.Frank Roberts, a periodontal researcher at the University of Washington, and his staff participated in the much of the research. Dr. David Engel, a retired periodontology professor at the University of Washington and the co-inventor of Sonicare, got involved as an investor and as a member of our board after about a year of development.

How did you arrive at the name Ultreo?

Gallagher: That took us more time than we thought. The “Ul” stands for “ultrasound,” and the “treo” stands for the three components of the technology: 1) The bristles move at a sonic speed and remove plaque on contact but also importantly create the optimal bubble population. 2) The transducer is the engine that generates the ultrasound and the waveguide transmits the ultrasound into the bubbles. 3) The bubbles are activated by the ultrasound which causes them to pulsate and resonate and, in addition to bristle contact, are able to remove plaque bacteria.

What is the technology behind this toothbrush that makes it different?

Gallagher: One word – ultrasound.

This approach is somewhat similar to other toothbrushes on the market, in other words, each claims a special innovation for a better cleaning. What would you tell a dentist who says, “Why do I need another battery-powered toothbrush?”

Gallagher:Primarily because of the new technology. Ultreo is the only power toothbrush to incorporate ultrasound waveguide technology with sonic bristle action to remove hard-to-reach plaque bacteria that bristle action alone can leave behind.

Jeri Starrett:If you look at the other products that are out there, there hasn’t been anything new from a technology standpoint in many years. They’ve done reiterations of the same product – different colors, additional features and more ergonomic handles, but in terms of what’s inside, from a technology standpoint, there haven’t been any advances.

How is the retail price of $149 for this toothbrush distributed? Is it that consumers are paying for a head that lasts longer? Is it simply the fact that it’s technology that nobody else has? Is it warranty? What are the things that make this product a premium product?

Gallagher: Great cleaning. A very pleasing mouth feel. And yes, the components of the brush, because of the ultrasound aspect of it, are more expensive than other power toothbrushes. Our cost of manufacturing is probably double that of our competitors.

How long are the heads expected to last and at what cost?

Gallagher: We recommend replacing the Ultreo brush heads every three months, not so much because of the bristle wearing out, but because we’ve shown that after three months the ultrasound output may begin to decline. Replacement brush heads are $19.99 per head.

What is your unique approach to selling the toothbrushes through the professional channels going to be?What is your unique approach to selling the toothbrushes through the professional channels going to be?

Gallagher: Ultreo is ultimately a consumer product but we understand that its success depends on the dental professional. The only way this product will be available in the short term is through the dental professional or on our Web site. It won’t be available in retail stores for some time. We’ll also be going to all the trade shows and running print advertising in the professional journals. We have our own field sales force who are visiting dental offices and conducting lunch-and-learns. We also have an inside sales and service group. There’s a wealth of information on our Web site. I’ve been personally visiting with opinion leaders under confidentiality for the last 18 months, introducing them to the technology and the science.

Your plans for retail sales, you’ve indicated will be slightly down the road…

Gallagher: When we go to retail, we’ll be very strategic. The earliest we’ll go retail will be November 2007. We’ll go to online retailers, catalogs, upper end department stores, etc. Over time we’ll go to drug and then mass and warehouse clubs. But we need to build the professional support first.

Many dentists are reluctant to sell products in their offices because they feel ultimately the patient’s going to buy the same product for less money at Target or Wal-Mart. How do you address that?

Gallagher: This is something we have experience with. It’s a difficult balancing act, but there are two components to it. One is phasing the retail distribution in a way that the dentist isn’t competing head-on with retail. The other thing to keep in mind is that we’re not done with our innovation. We’re going to have new innovations and we’re going to improve this product as we go. We’ll make sure the dentist always has the best model, so they’re not competing with the same model at retail.

In terms of marketing plans to dentists and hygienists, who of those two groups do you think is the best influencer when it comes to sales?

Starrett: Unequivocally, it’s the hygienists.

Gallagher: The hygienist touches more patients, but the dentist is the gatekeeper. To get an office to begin dispensing these brushes, the dentist has to buy in. They’re both important for different reasons.

You mentioned inside sales earlier. How’s that going to work?

Gallagher: We have 11 outside reps and four inside reps. The inside reps coordinate with the outside reps, setting up lunch-and-learns, placing re-orders, calling dental offices in advance of the tradeshows and suggesting to them that they stop by our booth. We also have two customer care reps who are internal that take phone calls from consumers calling in that have heard about Ultreo and are interested in finding out more information.

We have talked about the ability for a dental office to recommend it but not necessarily stock it.

Starrett: Right. We have a Virtual Dispensing Program set up that allows dental professionals to get rewards for recommending Ultreo. The way it works is the dental office is given a unique code so when the patient uses that code on our Web site they get a discount and the dental office in return gets rewards points. So the dental office doesn’t have to physically stock the items, and yet they’re still getting recognition for recommending the toothbrush.

Is it possible to take this technology and put it into a less-expensive toothbrush?

Gallagher: There are certainly ways, over time, to reduce the price and the cost of a product, and that will be our objective. Having said that, we’re not trying to be all things to all people. We’re really targeting people who are highly interested in oral hygiene, for whom price is less of an issue, because for $149, this is the best preventive care. It’s going to be a really good long-term investment for people. We’re very targeted in our approach, and that will obviously evolve over time.

What is the feedback you’re getting from clinical trials?

Gallagher: The primary feedback we’re getting is that people can’t believe how smooth and clean their teeth feel and how long that feeling of clean lasts. We’ve done extensive clinical research and lab research on plaque removal, biofilm removal, stain removal, gingival health improvements, etc., and have received excellent results all around.

Is there a way to scientifically evaluate the penetration of cleaning? How far, interproximally, can the bubbles get?

Gallagher: We have done that with in-vitro research. You will see research on our Web site that show studies where we cut tiny grooves into glass slides and then coated them with S.mutans biofilm. With Ultreo you will see biofilm removal even where the bristles don’t come into contact. You don’t see the same removal with other products.

How long before we will see another new product from your company?

Gallagher: It’s hard to say. It’s impossible to predict the future. But the power toothbrush category is a great category because it’s underdeveloped. We’ve got an excellent product here and our focus is really going to be on continuing to innovate and improve this product.

Is there anything I’ve missed? Anything we should talk about that I haven’t covered yet?

Gallagher: The only thing I’d say is we’re an entrepreneurial company. We’re not the prototypical start-up in the sense that we know a lot about what we’re trying to do. That by no means provides certainty for success and we’re competing against very big companies, but our advantage is innovation, speed, flexibility and a connection with the dental community. The dental community is a community of entrepreneurs. I think, for dentists and hygienists, we’re an interesting company to work with because we’re a lot like them.

For more information, please visit www.ultreo.com or call 877-4-ULTREO.