It All Started with a Bad Tooth

The year was 2006 and Ruedger Rubbert, the co-founder of REPLICATE Dental Technologies, was in the dental chair having an infected tooth pulled. Clearly evident on the X-ray was a long crack that ran the length of the tooth - the cause of the infection.

According to Ruedger, “As a joke, my dentist told me that instead of giving me a dental implant in a few months, maybe he should just fill the crack in my extracted tooth with glue and put it back into the socket immediately. I told him to try it.”

While the dentist repaired Ruedger’s tooth, an idea came to him. Why not replace the bad tooth with better material, like titanium and zirconia and shape it like his natural tooth? 

A few years earlier, Ruedger had gotten a screw-type dental implant, one that required the dentist to drill a hole in his jawbone. “Based on my own experience, I knew there was room for improvement,” Ruedger explains. “Getting a new tooth on the same day without any drilling appealed to me and I knew it would appeal to other patients too.”

That night he went home and started writing the company’s first patent.

At that time, Ruedger and I were both at Lingualcare, an orthodontic technology company we co-founded. Lingualcare made customized orthodontic braces for the backside of the teeth. We sold Lingualcare to 3M in 2007 and after completing the integration started working on the technology that would become the REPLICATE System.

During our time in orthodontics, we watched Align Technology (NASDAQ: ALGN) take over the orthodontic industry with their Invisalign system, a series of clear “aligners” for straightening teeth. Each set of aligners was designed on a computer and customised for the individual patient to deliver a predetermined treatment result. Invisalign made it easy for general dentists to treat simple orthodontic cases instead of sending the patient and the revenue for the procedure to a specialist.

Our goal from the beginning was to become the Invisalign of tooth replacement, to reduce the need for a specialist in straight-forward cases. Ruedger explains, “We built a product that leverages the skills a dentist already has. If a dentist can pull a tooth and bond a crown, they can treat a patient with our product. And most important, it is minimally invasive which reduces the risk of harming a patient during the procedure.”

Today, Invisalign is the most valuable orthodontic company in the world, with a market capitalization of $16B. Tooth replacement is a much larger market than orthodontics, so we see a bright future for REPLICATE Dental Technologies.

“Six years ago, I had another tooth fail, and decided to become the first REPLICATE Tooth patient. Now I have two in my mouth,” Ruedger explains. “The experience is night and day compared to a traditional implant.”

Dentists in the U.S want to add new revenue streams to their practices, and they are always on the lookout for minimally invasive alternatives to improve the patient experience. The REPLICATE System offers both. 

“I like that something good came from my bad tooth,” said Ruedger. “I’m excited that others will benefit from my experience.”

www.replicatetooth.com