Researchers at Lexington's Innovative Diagnostics are working on a device that uses saliva to better determine oral health.
The company is one of nine high tech firms in Kentucky named last week to split almost $3 million. The grants are part of the state's Small Business Innovation Research matching fund program.
Dr. John Novak worked for a decade in the Center for Oral Health Research at the University of Kentucky. "We need to develop something that is relatively easy for the patient to assess their own risk," he said. "It's sort of like a patient who is obese, taking their blood sugar with a finger prick to determine their blood sugar and their risk for diabetes."
Novak says Kentucky is annually ranked near the top nationally in the number of its citizens with missing teeth.
He says the device over time could help catch problems earlier, in an effort to save teeth. "We're hoping that ultimately it will become a public health benefit that one of the problems that we have in Kentucky is access to care, because people just don't have the money," added Novak.
Novak says he hopes such a product could be sold over the counter to help individuals, particularly in rural Kentucky, check on their oral health.
He says it might be another five years before such a device would be easily accessible.
