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Professional Courtesy Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine

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For Dentists, By Dentists
– by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine


Dentistry is a breeding ground for inventors and entrepreneurs. Perhaps it is just the way we are wired to always be ready to solve a unique problem, and the fact that many of us run small business enterprises with annual sales in excess of $1 million. I recently discovered three new items this past February at the Chicago Midwinter Meeting that I thought were worthy of a special mention since these companies were started by dentists. There are many companies in dentistry like these, and they deserve your support as they understand well the aches and pains of daily practice.

Candy is Your Partner in Prevention
Dr. John Bruinsma and his wife, Debra Bruinsma, RDH, have teamed up with a professional candy maker to offer a full line of tasty sugar-free treats sweetened with xylitol, which was recently called “the good sugar” by our own Trisha O’Hehir, RDH, BS, editorial director of Hygienetown. I highly recommend that you take her online CE course (Dentaltown.com or Hygienetown.com) about the benefits of using xylitol, as it will open your eyes to the possibilities of these unique sweets.

Dr. John’s product line currently includes hard candies, chocolate squares, mints and a lemonade flavored drink. Xylitol consumption of six to 10 grams per day will provide many health benefits including the reduction of dental cavities by up to 80 percent according to their website. If you join their Partner in Prevention program, your patients will receive a 7.5 percent discount on their orders and you will receive a 7.5 percent rebate when they use your code number at checkout. I love this idea because there is no burden on the dental office to order inventory and resell to patients in the office. For more details on this unique program and their full line of sweets, visit www.drjohns.com.

Coming Soon: Fast Onset, Comfortable Injection
I think the biggest innovation in local anesthesia during my first 15 years in practice was the arrival of Articaine 4% in the United States. Dr. Mic Falkel has developed the next revolution in anesthetic. The full release of this product will likely hit the market this fall, but I will give you a sneak preview so you can dream about this over the summer. Onpharma has a very special device that will buffer the pH of any local anesthesia prior to injection. What will this do? The near physiologic pH of the local anesthetic makes the injection comfortable, removing that familiar bee sting, and the onset of profound anesthesia with IAN block can be as fast as two minutes. Why don’t they sell anesthetic this way already? The simple answer is shelf life; buffered anesthetic would not last very long at all. This is a very promising technology and I encourage you to visit their Web site for more information prior to the official launch. There is a simple form to complete and they will notify you when the product is available for sale (tell them Tom Giacobbi sent you). Go to www.onpharma.com.

Autoclavable Isolation for $1 Per Use
Since the beginning of time, dentists have been required to manage the endless supply of saliva that patients generate. Dr. Logan Coffee is a dentist in rural Oklahoma that was frustrated trying to put orthodontic brackets on his patients. He developed the Isolation Block over the course of the last three years and the resulting product exists in two versions, each with three sizes to fit most patients. The combination bite block/suction/retractor can be autoclaved a minimum of 50 times before it is discarded. For more information on this latex free product, visit: www.isolationblock.com.

Are you a dentist getting ready to launch a new product? Do you have a new idea that you think will improve our practices? Drop me a line: tom@dentaltown.com.
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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