New Portable Dentist Suction Device Potentially Fills Market Gap

Friday 28 May 2010 @ 6:28 pm

Five Rice University students have created a portable dental suction device. This device, which is battery-powered, and very inexpensive, can potentially replace the traditional, expensive, vacuum system used by dentists to remove saliva during dental procedures.

Clearly an expensive, suction device which can run for prolonged periods on batteries, has a worldwide appeal, especially in rural areas where electricity is non-existent, limited, or sporadic.

According to David Ruth with Rice University, the students, bioengineering majors Brian Benjamin, Jaime Wirth, Carmen Perez and Tiffany Kim and biochemistry and cell biology major Jessica Ma created the device for under $200.

The unit was field tested in Nicaragua last summer. Previously the dentists there had been using gauze, which was expensive, hard to get, and created biohazardous waste. Future improvements include streamlining the vacuum, and charging the battery with solar power.

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