The shank and turbine assembly of a dentist drill tipped by the "bur" or bit. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

A local dentistry equipment startup is "revolutionizing" the industry and has a number of international players falling for its new products hook, line and sinker.

Frustrated by years of poor air rotor performance and the frequent need to overhaul or replace the expensive turbines that drive dental drills, Ottawa dentist Derek Turner founded Turner Technology Instruments in 2002. His team has created a triangular shaped bur and matching air-driven turbine to enhance the performance of these dental instruments.

The bur is the disposable "bit" that dentists use in their drills.

According to the company, the new shape reduces slippage and increases longevity because the turbine and bur now turn in unison.

"That's what really makes it unique and what it does is provide more power and more durability," said TTi CEO and president Jean Castonguay. "To allow the dentists not only increased cutting power but consistent constant cutting power throughout the entire life of the turbine – two years."

Standard drill handsets use a round bur, which is friction grip held. The problem, Mr. Castonguay explained, is that this style is prone to turbine slippage and blockage, which will often go undetected.

"The turbine will continue to turn and that will cause havoc within the turbine, and the turbine will not have a long life."

Modern handsets are also failing dentists due to more stringent sterilization guidelines imposed in the 1990s to reduce incidents of blood-born viruses being transmitted through dental instruments. Repeated sterilization damages the bearings, which causes power to decrease to about 65 per cent before the turbine fails and stops turning.

Mr. Castonguay said the biggest market in the dental industry is instrument repair, therefore suppliers have little inclination to develop improved and longer-lasting products.

"The industry is not doing anything about it because the actual market for repair for handpieces is five times bigger than the handpiece market so there's very little incentive for the industry to change the technology."

TTi recently purchased a repair business – The Handpiece Clinic – to corner both sides of the industry. TTi's subsidiary ProDrive Systems, meanwhile, is developing 12 different models that will retrofit into almost all of their competitors' products.

"When it's sent in for repair, rather than put in a traditional technology turbine, they'll put a ProDrive turbine. It's like putting a better motor in a car," Mr. Castonguay said.

"We'll be able to apply our turbine bur technology in about 96 per cent of the handpiece models that are currently in the market."

Mr. Castonguay said their triangular bur will be the first and only alternative shape to hit the market.

"We have a patent on any form of drive mechanism, whether it's triangular, rectangular, anything where the turbine turns the bur we have a worldwide patent on it."

ProDrive is now testing prototypes. FDA and Health Canada approvals are expected in March, with the product launch scheduled for May. ProDrive says the product has already garnered support from dentists, according to a survey of 125,000 dentists in the U.S.

"The Strategic Dental Marketing (SDM) Survey indicated that 96 per cent of the dentists surveyed said they would try our handpiece and 85 per cent said they would try our replacement turbine," Mr. Castonguay said.

Canadian Dental Association president Jack Cottrell said power and durability is primarily what dentists were seeking.

"We want durability, we're looking for power in order to be able to get the job done, and all of these features that go along with it."

Other important innovations include interior fibre optic lights that provide extra illumination at the back of the mouth, quieter drills, and small, strong handpieces that reduce operator fatigue.

While most dental innovation has been initiated overseas, Canada is slowly catching up, Mr. Cottrell said.

"Some of the original ideas may come from somewhere else but maybe one of our companies will take that idea and take it one step further. We're getting more and more companies interested in research and development in these areas."

Mr. Castonguay said ProDrive is currently negotiating with international players including Meisinger, Ultradent and SS White, who have expressed support and interest in the new product.

"Our principal company, Meisinger Burs, has been around since 1870. They have lots of market information that they've shared with us," he said. "Meisinger is one of the world's leading bur companies and all of our burs are manufactured by them."

The partnership with Meisinger is mutually beneficial. Meisinger is looking to combine technologies because their company specializes in bur tips whereas ProDrive's technology relates to the back end of the bur where the drive mechanism fits into the turbine.

"The long term for them would be to incorporate our back end in their line so they would license our technology for their own purposes and pay us a royalty," Mr. Castonguay said.

Meisinger USA president Alex Miller said ProDrive is in a position to "take a major role and really change the way the dental industry looks at handpieces and burs."

To his knowledge no other company has tried to increase the performance of all handsets on the market. Nor has any company successfully positioned themselves to dominate bur sales by requiring users of upgraded handsets to purchase their own burs.

"There's nobody out there who can compete with them," Mr. Miller said. "Just a proprietary bur by itself wouldn't work, but if you are increasing longevity for a doctor, you're allowing them more productivity ... By giving a long-term relationship with these doctors, you're coming out with a package."

Tina Barton

Special to the Ottawa Business Journal

NOTE: This version of the story correctly identifies the repair business that TTi acquired as the "Handpiece Clinic."