Plato said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” I’m not sure if he mentioned anything about desperation being the father of motivation, but he should have. And possessing the drive to turn that invention and motivation into something to help humanity is the ultimate contribution. Watching my co-founder in her pursuit to improve the wellbeing of people is what inspired me to quit my job with a Fortune 100 company and join her in that pursuit.
My co-founder is Dr. Emily Stein, a down-to-earth, mild-mannered scientist out of Stanford University, who is quick to smile, works hard, and has an infectious passion. She formed Daily Dental Care, LLC, a life sciences company focused on an often-ignored need – oral care. More specifically, she is leveraging her expertise in microbiology and immunology to create oral care products that address the root cause of dental disease – oral bacteria.
Dr. Stein’s motivation for establishing Daily Dental Care stems from the love of her grandmother, who lost the ability to care for her own teeth due to crippling arthritis and experienced a dental hygiene crisis from neglect while in assisted living. After several tooth extractions, she suffered a major stroke that significantly impaired her life. Witnessing the downward spiral of her grandmother’s health linked to something as simple as inadequate dental hygiene hyper-motivated Dr. Stein. She felt as though both she and the system had failed her grandmother.
In her spare time, she began screening generally recognized as safe (GRAS) ingredients in search of a combination that could be fully consumable and easily administered. After five years of testing and refinement, her solution was ready for commercial production. In its first iteration, it has taken the form of a sugar free, rapid-melt lozenge, or “smart mint”. The lozenge releases ingredients that steer bacterial behavior and inhibits bacteria’s ability to convert sugar into harmful by-products, such as acid and plaque, which are responsible for tooth decay and gum disease.
Our lozenge is the first of what we anticipate will be an array of oral care products to provide easy and safe ways of managing oral bacteria. Thus, we are exploring options for additional funding to accelerate our commercialization and revenue-generating activities in both B2B and B2C markets. We also are seeking additional partners to incorporate our patented ingredients into their products like toothpastes, mouthwashes, mouth guard rinses, dental probiotics, and other applications.
Because we want to position the company to be a major player in the oral care industry, we made the decision to move the business to Medical Alley and join the many other companies that make an impact in healthcare, including oral care. We are excited to be fully immersed in this strong, forward-thinking community and have access to the best and brightest talent as we build our team.
Not long after we officially moved the company to Medical Alley, Dr. Stein decided to follow. Fully committed, she uprooted her life in the San Francisco Bay Area and moved to Minneapolis November of 2017. Being a native Minnesotan, I passive-aggressively encouraged her to wait until after winter, but she assured me that it was the right move at the right time for her. She still has strong connections in the Bay Area, so I’m sure she’ll take trips back to keep her network strong and thaw out, occasionally.
Beginning in Q2, our head of research and development (and third co-founder), Susanne Szabo, PhD, will kick off an IRB clinical study funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging. This study will examine the effects of Daily Dental Care’s oral care lozenges on gingivitis in fixed-income older adults living in the greater Cleveland area. The company will partner with the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging, as well as with Oral DNA Labs, a Minnesota-based salivary diagnostic testing company, to execute the study. We are thrilled to be working with experienced partners to expand the clinical impact of our approach to gum disease while broadening our scientific understanding.
We truly believe that Daily Dental Care’s dental prebiotic approach could shift the global consciousness toward an ecological and microbial community-based approach in understanding oral diseases.
About Daily Dental Care
Daily Dental Care, LLC (DailyDentalCares.com) is a life sciences company that creates consumable, supplemental oral care products addressing the root cause of dental disease by balancing oral ecology.
About Lindsey Huff
Lindsey Huff, VP of Corporate Development, co-founder and a St. Paul native who attended the University of San Francisco. There she earned her bachelor’s degree in public relations and master’s degree in marketing and business administration. She has 12+ years of experience in marketing and business planning, strategy and execution. She has led marketing, sales, and business development initiatives with various sized businesses, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies.
About Emily Stein
Emily Stein, PhD, is the CEO and the original founder of Daily Dental Care, LLC. She attended the University of Iowa, where she first developed her fascination with the microbial universe. After she earned her degree in microbiology, she continued to further advance her expertise at the University of California at Berkeley where she sharpened her understanding of how bacteria behave, consume and socialize for survival in every known environment. After she earned her PhD, she attended Stanford University to pursue a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Immunology & Rheumatology.
