Abstract
Oral and dental health is an essential aspect of an individual’s life and overall health. As general healthcare standards are improving, many are placing more importance on their oral health. The oral care market is filled with ever-advancing technologies for consumers to improve their dental hygiene. Unfortunately, oral health monitoring at the consumer level is limited to plaque detection, and dentist visits are the only means to discover oral conditions. The most prevalent oral condition, dental caries, is a progressive disease that results from bacteria build-up and demineralization over time. Instead of the common practice of biannual visits to dental clinics for oral health checkups, a consumer product allowing more frequent and closer monitoring will significantly improve the chance of early detection of such diseases and significantly improve overall oral health and hygiene. This work presents, SmileCheck, a dental caries and plaque monitoring device for consumer use. SmileCheck makes use of a mature technology, Quantitative Light-induced Fluorescence (QLF), to detect demineralized areas and red fluorescence caused by bacteria on teeth. The SmileCheck device uses a camera with an optical filter to capture images of tooth surfaces under blue light, which fluoresce green when healthy. The device then sends the images to the accompanying SmileCheck App to be processed, and information on the health status of the tooth is presented to users. In addition to the design and development of the device, this work analyzes the market and business strategy to introduce such a solution in the market.