Israeli Startup Keeps Gums Healthy With Push of a Button

Purecare Dental takes ozonated water out of the dentist’s office and into our bathrooms with easy-to-use device.

By Naama Barak, ISRAEL21c

There’s nothing better than making a great cup of coffee with the push of a button. Except maybe looking after your health with the same simple click.

This is what Israeli health-tech startup Purecare Dental is all about, offering a coffee-machine lookalike device that delivers ozonated water straight to the gums.

“Ozone was discovered some 130 years ago, and it has been used for treatment for over 100 years and in dental care for over 50 years,” explains Purecare Dental CEO Eli David.

“We invented a device that uses ozone in treatment in a very convenient way and we made it accessible to the wider audience.”

Ozone, in case you were wondering, is an allotrope of oxygen. It’s produced in nature through the sun’s ultraviolet radiation or in lightning storms.

“The fresh smell that you often smell after lightning storms is the smell of ozone in the air,” David says. “We know how to create this ozone in our device.”

But what do lightning storms have to do with dental care?

“Ozone has unique disinfectant qualities,” David explains. “It kills periopathogenic bacteria and it kills fungus. There’s no problem using it in the oral environment.”

According to Dr. Guy Tobias, the public dentistry specialist who conducted Purecare’s clinical trial, “The distinct advantage of ozone over other products is that it can hurt the bad guys, the bacteria, without hurting the bacteria that’s necessary for good oral health. This is because in its mode of operation, its impairment of the bacteria shell is dependent on its energetic activity. We know that pathogenic bacteria are more active, and that’s why they’re the ones that are impaired.”

Like a WaterPik

Usually, ozone meets the oral environment in the dentist’s chair. Purecare Dental makes this possible in the comfort of your own bathroom.

“Our device is very reminiscent of various water irrigators. The substantial advantage is the addition of ozone to the water,” David says.

“The first water flosser was invented in 1962, and since then there haven’t been any substantial developments in this field,” he adds. “We achieved a very substantial breakthrough in the field, and there’s a great advantage to a product that offers a clinical effect and not only a wash.”

Using it is similar to making coffee, David says. You fill the tank with water and then insert the capsule.

Within minutes, the capsule generates oxygen that then flows onward to an electrode that ozonates the water.

“Ozone, despite being a very good disinfectant material, when it comes in volatile gas form it’s poisonous to the body,” explains Tobias.

“Purecare’s innovation is that we turned it from a gas into watery ozone. The beauty of this, as research shows, is that ozone in a watery phase is completely biocompatible. It doesn’t damage bodily tissue and oral cavity tissue.”

Branching out

With 15 years of experience in the world of ozone, David came up with Purecare Dental together with Israeli healthcare investment platform Sanara Ventures over three years ago.

The Galilee-based startup recently began its early-stage marketing pilot in Israel and is looking to branch out to Europe and elsewhere in the world. Its current fundraising round will be used to establish the company’s production, marketing and sales activity.

“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been inventing and developing products, “David says. “Most of the time I think about how to improve things or invent something that will improve our daily life.”

David acted on this urge by studying industrial design and electronics engineering. He began his career by offering his services to existing high-tech companies, before becoming an entrepreneur on his own.

Purecare came about because “it was quite obvious that you could take ozone technology that has been proven to treat gum infection, and combine it with water flossers,” he says.

David points out that the teeth and gums are a “gateway to the rest of the body.” Good oral hygiene can help us avoid other diseases.

In addition to the general population, Purecare’s product is targeted to the 70 to 80 percent who suffer from gingivitis (inflammation of the gums) and people who have dental implants.

“You look after the implant with good hygiene,” David explains. “Our product helps with this issue because gum infections are what can stop implants from holding on.”