Pitch 3-3 :Providing the oral care system necessary for 100 years of life

[Summary]

Oral hygiene has gained much importance in recent times. The sense of urgency concerning the inadequacies of the current Japan oral health care system in better preventing oral diseases, eliminating oral health disparities, and ensuring access to basic oral health services has also increased in recent years. This can be proved by the current figures stating 5 million people in Japan need oral management.

Keeping the above-mentioned facts in mind, HA-PPY Limited has developed a toothbrush with visual functionality, which can perform the necessary oral care without opening of the mouth. This advanced technology supports cleaning of the tooth which is the root cause of oral diseases like plague. Therefore, the brush has been equipped with plaque prediction function, which identifies plague by a vivid color that can be measured by numbers. Thus, both electronic and optical functionalities are found in the product.

Periodontal diseases are infections of the gum and bone that hold the teeth in place. In advanced stages, they lead to painful chewing problems and even tooth loss. Like any infection, gum disease can make it hard to keep the blood sugar under control. Susceptibility to periodontitis is increased by approximately threefold in people with diabetes, stating a clear relationship between degree of hyperglycemia and severity of periodontitis. By removing plague, the toothbrush also eliminates the incidence of periodontal disease and diabetes.

[Mentors' comments]

　"I think it's a very noble product proposition, caring for elderly patients' is a very nice idea. But how does this product help with patients that cannot open their mouth? The plaque of course covers all surfaces of the teeth."Dr. Laura Holberger, BioLabs

　"It seems that this will be a very quick screening to identify the areas that needed attention of plaque . Have you thought about how you're going to market this? Who your end users will be?"Dr. Kevin Grimes, Stanford University

[Profile]

Mr. Oyama was an optical engineer at Sony and was involved in projector development. He established HA-PPY Co., Ltd. in 2018.