Oral Medical Device to Market
Donation protected
Dear friends,
I am turning to gofundme.com to help me bring a unique Oral Medicine Device to the market. It is the only patent pending device designed by a dentist (me) to treat oral complications caused by a broad variety of situations.
Originally conceived in 1999, I have been working on improving and adding features that will benefit numerous types of patients.
For example, people who are undergoing chemotherapy or who have had radiation treatment to the head and neck suffer from painful ulcerations, opportunistic infections, and, most devastatingly, a reduction or permanent loss of saliva production.
Imagine having no saliva in your mouth for the rest of your life. It would make every waking, eating, talking, and sleeping hour miserable. Without a moist mouth, people cannot eat well, speak easily and no longer have the ability to keep cavity forming bacteria under control. It results in some of the most difficult kind of decay to fix (and in many cases, cannot be fixed.)
A large percentage of our population suffer from a dry mouth daily (based on CDC and ADA published data). People suffering with this are those with Sjögrens syndrome, diabetes, nerve damage, cancer, treatment for cancer, sarcoidosis, and simply increasing age. It is well documented that 500 of the most commonly prescribed medications cause dry mouth and as we age and take more and more medications the complication becomes amplified.
This device is a portable fluid replacement system in a camera sized bag. It operates from a wall outlet or a rechargeable battery. A container is filled with the recommended fluid and a small pump delivers a programed rate of it up a tube to a hands free clear Bluetooth style headset hung on the ear. It then passes into a micro-tube about the size of a human hair. This tube comes to the corner of the mouth, turns, and enters the Oral cavity.
When worn, the patient selects a day or night rate of fluid delivery (based on data from studies of human saliva production.) It also incorporates a way to automatically mix the contents of the fluid bottle. This is important because some medicines require constant mixing to be used properly.
Currently there is no long term way of managing chronic dry mouth. I am trying to change that. Please help me bring this to market. The asking amount is high because at this point in device development I must now shift to getting FDA clearances and design engineers to reduce its size more so people feel even less encumbered. I have gratefully spent thousands upon thousands of my own dollars and man hours on this....I simply cannot afford the regulatory and registration costs alone to get this to people suffering.
Why do I care? I treat and have treated head and neck cancer patients and survivors. As well as medically compromised patients. Their suffering is real and we have limited things we can offer them. That breaks my heart. AND..... I am a cancer survivor, too. I was diagnosed with stage 4 testicular cancer 2 days before my first son was born. I know first hand what chemotherapy can do to your mouth and the devastation cancer can bring to a home.
Please help me help others.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey W. Cash, DDS
I am turning to gofundme.com to help me bring a unique Oral Medicine Device to the market. It is the only patent pending device designed by a dentist (me) to treat oral complications caused by a broad variety of situations.
Originally conceived in 1999, I have been working on improving and adding features that will benefit numerous types of patients.
For example, people who are undergoing chemotherapy or who have had radiation treatment to the head and neck suffer from painful ulcerations, opportunistic infections, and, most devastatingly, a reduction or permanent loss of saliva production.
Imagine having no saliva in your mouth for the rest of your life. It would make every waking, eating, talking, and sleeping hour miserable. Without a moist mouth, people cannot eat well, speak easily and no longer have the ability to keep cavity forming bacteria under control. It results in some of the most difficult kind of decay to fix (and in many cases, cannot be fixed.)
A large percentage of our population suffer from a dry mouth daily (based on CDC and ADA published data). People suffering with this are those with Sjögrens syndrome, diabetes, nerve damage, cancer, treatment for cancer, sarcoidosis, and simply increasing age. It is well documented that 500 of the most commonly prescribed medications cause dry mouth and as we age and take more and more medications the complication becomes amplified.
This device is a portable fluid replacement system in a camera sized bag. It operates from a wall outlet or a rechargeable battery. A container is filled with the recommended fluid and a small pump delivers a programed rate of it up a tube to a hands free clear Bluetooth style headset hung on the ear. It then passes into a micro-tube about the size of a human hair. This tube comes to the corner of the mouth, turns, and enters the Oral cavity.
When worn, the patient selects a day or night rate of fluid delivery (based on data from studies of human saliva production.) It also incorporates a way to automatically mix the contents of the fluid bottle. This is important because some medicines require constant mixing to be used properly.
Currently there is no long term way of managing chronic dry mouth. I am trying to change that. Please help me bring this to market. The asking amount is high because at this point in device development I must now shift to getting FDA clearances and design engineers to reduce its size more so people feel even less encumbered. I have gratefully spent thousands upon thousands of my own dollars and man hours on this....I simply cannot afford the regulatory and registration costs alone to get this to people suffering.
Why do I care? I treat and have treated head and neck cancer patients and survivors. As well as medically compromised patients. Their suffering is real and we have limited things we can offer them. That breaks my heart. AND..... I am a cancer survivor, too. I was diagnosed with stage 4 testicular cancer 2 days before my first son was born. I know first hand what chemotherapy can do to your mouth and the devastation cancer can bring to a home.
Please help me help others.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey W. Cash, DDS
Organizer
Jeffrey Cash
Organizer
Bon Air, VA