CaviSense

CaviSense is a platform that expands caries detection inside and beyond the four walls of the dental office. CaviSense has developed an innovative technology that identifies active tooth demineralization in under 10 seconds and thus enables easy and quick early-stage cavity detection. 

The technology was developed by dentists and biomedical engineers from Harvard and Tufts Universities. The patented technology is based on a colorimetric material that changes from purple to yellow when in contact with a tooth surface below the critical pH of 5.5 denoting active demineralization.

The flagship device, the CaviSense Toothpick, has been clinically studied, FDA registered in H2 2024 and is now used in dental practices, DSOs, FQHC, and mobile dentistry clinics.

CaviSense Toothpicks detect active tooth demineralization with high accuracy in places that are not visible such as interproximal spaces and are therefore perfectly suited for detecting active lesions in visits when x-rays are not tolerated or indicated.

CaviSense executed in-vitro studies showing 98% accuracy at detecting pH of 5.5 and below. CaviSense completed a clinical study (link to white paper) in 5 multi-site practices across the US. The results showed high agreement between the toothpick measuring active demineralization and clinicians' diagnosis of carious lesions. The few differences are explained by CaviSense's ability to differentiate between active and non-active lesions and the detection of early-stage caries before they show up on X-rays.  

In dental offices, CaviSense is being used as a four-quadrant screening tool (in between molars) for 35% of patient visits on medium to high caries-risk patients who are not receiving x-rays. In these patients, CaviSense toothpicks have shown the ability to identify carious lesions with 90% accuracy and generate 85% acceptance rates for X-rays and treatments.

CaviSense improves patient care by identifying caries earlier which translates to the potential to identify 7,000 interproximal caries per dentist per year in patients who are already in the office but not receiving X-rays. Apart from the clinical benefit of timely detection of caries, there is also a financial benefit for practices regardless if they decide to take X-rays and restore, remineralize, or simply recall these patients more frequently. These additional services could generate $300K of additional revenues per dentist annually with a 5X return. CaviSense in turn can achieve profitability with fewer than 100 dentists for this use case alone.

CaviSense has also developed case series data from pilots in mobile settings (school-based screening and health fairs), that have consistently demonstrated CaviSense’s ability to detect demineralization in interproximal areas when X-rays were not available. The detection of these carious lesions enables the timely application of remineralization treatments in these remote settings. These same pilots demonstrated a positive financial impact for the mobile dental units. 

CaviSense clinical and scientific advisors are widely known and respected leaders in the dental field such as Dr. Amr Moursi (NYU and Past president of AAPD), Dr. Manwei Ng (Boston Children), and Dr. Joel Berg (past president of the AAPD), Dr Brian Novy (Harvard Dental School) among others.  

The NextGen CaviSense GelTray for whole-mouth sensing is in prototype form and scheduled to be registered and available in Q2 2025.