You never know when inspiration will strike.
For Dr. Mark Thoreson, founder of Inflatrix Dental Innovations, he was struck while watching a James Bond movie.
There is a scene in “Goldeneye” where Q shows James Bond a number of different gadgets. On screen is a phone booth trap, in which an airbag inflates inside a phone booth, trapping the person inside.
Since then, he has been on a journey to develop an inflatable device for dental procedures.
It’s a clear plastic device that doesn’t look like much, but as someone who’s been in the dental world for a while, Thoreson believes she has a chance to shake things up in the industry.
There is innovation going on in the dental industry, Thoreson said, but in this particular area he wants to work in, there haven’t been any major updates in the past two decades.
The Inflatrix is a flexible, disposable, inflatable device for placing fillings on posterior teeth.
“Inflatrix will be an absolute disruptor in the market,” said Thoreson.
Thoreson is one of five finalists for the Energy Capital Start-Up Challenge, which is organized by Impact 307, Wyoming’s statewide incubator network, and Energy Capital Economic Development.
At 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Thoreson and the other four finalists will have the opportunity to present to a panel of judges and a live audience in the Gillette College Presentation Hall. They have a chance to win money from the $50,000 fund established for the event.
When it comes to filing back teeth, standard practice is to have a collection of five to seven separate pieces of equipment that must be placed in the mouth before the filling is inserted.
While that works well, Thoreson, who has a background both as a dentist and in dental sales, said he’s “always had a mindset of looking for a better mousetrap, a cleaner way to do something.”
For more than 20 years, Thoreson has been developing the Inflatrix, which is one piece, as opposed to seven, and can shorten the time a patient spends in the chair.
The device slides between the teeth. It is connected to a syringe with a one-way valve that only lets water through. Once the syringe is empty, the device inflates with water and is held in place, eliminating the need for wedges or clamps.
He got a patent for the device in 2002, but the technology to make it didn’t exist at the time. That patent has since expired, but in the spring of 2022, he was granted another patent and is currently working on a third.
It was a long process, but he kept the same team together for almost the entire time.
“We’ve had ebbs and flows, but it’s always been a path forward,” he said.
According to the American Dental Association, more than 80 million back tooth fillings are completed each year, and Thoreson aims to use Inflatrix in at least a quarter of those, or 20 million.
Thoreson moved to Gillette from Oregon in early 2022. He and his wife had had enough of life on the West Coast and decided to look for a new place to call home. They traveled across the country and ended up in Wyoming.
“Within one day in Gillette, Wyoming, we felt so welcome, such warmth, such business love,” Thoreson said.
The Chamber of Commerce and visitor center were open and welcoming, and Thoreson felt the business community was perfect. He is a communication member of the FUEL Business Incubator, which means that while he does not have a space in the incubator, he can benefit from all the services it offers.
Thoreson plans to begin production at Gillette in early 2024 and hopes to hire several people in each of the next two years. By the end of the second year, “we’ll have a legitimate full production operation,” he said.