A GLUE gun and art supplies go far for a child with the imagination.
And the disposition. Like, not wanting to floss.
There must be a better way to do it, Christina Gordon thought, tinkering with a glue gun and art tools to see how to go about it.
Fast forward 10 years. Christina is now a dental student at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) which was founded in 1838 in Richmond, Virginia.
Christina never forgot what she considered the inconvenience of flossing. She has turned that around, this time with the Proxy-Flosser which makes it easier to floss for those with braces.
In one motion, the dental tool flosses and cleans around braces – at half the time it took before for those with braces.
“It really started as an idea I had as a kid, and I saw a window of opportunity to explore the potential of the idea,” Christina tells Kaitlynn R. Copinger writing in the Washington Business Journal.
Christina wants to see the Proxy-Flosser in every oral hygiene aisle of popular supermarkets and outlets.
“I am hoping this device changes the way people with braces go about their oral hygiene routine,” she told the Washington Business Journal.
The young dental student, a member of the VCU School of Dentistry Class of 2023, has been awarded a $10,000 from the university’s Commercialization Fund.
The Fund enables students to advance their inventions to the marketplace.
This year, five innovative projects have been awarded funding through the initiative of VCU, one of America’s top 100 research universities.
The Commercialization Fund has provided $1.7 million to support 58 projects in the last five years. In turn, Fund recipients have raised over $18.5 million in additional funding, obtain eight licenses and launch five startup companies.
The kernel of a childhood idea came up again in Christina’s freshman/woman year in dental school. In class, she learned there is no such tool to help people with braces.
As with everybody who have the extra time (and inclination) during the pandemic lockdowns, Christina pursued her dream and talked to resource persons at the VCU Innovation Gateway.
“I was just in the right place at the right time,” Christina said.
“Since then, we’ve really been on the up and up. Things are really, really looking good for the Proxy-Flosser right now.”
Christina hopes to have a prototype ready by December with the help of the SPARK Product Development and VCU Innovation Gateway. When all goes well, a patent application will follow.
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Dr. Joseph D. Lim is the former Associate Dean of the UE College of Dentistry, former Dean of the College of Dentistry, National University, past president and honorary fellow of the Asian Oral Implant Academy, and honorary fellow of the Japan College of Oral Implantologists and Honorary Life Member of Thai Association of Dental Implantology. For questions on dental health, e-mail jdlim2008@gmail.com or text 0917-8591515./PN
