From Dental Tribune November 24, 2011
BOSTON, Mass.,USA: The Forsyth Institute in Boston has signed an exclusive licencing agreement with a U.S.-based start-up for the commercialisation of a recently patented blue-light based technology for use in dentistry. Under the terms of the contract,Lexington-based PhotOral will be allowed to support the development and marketing of an intraoral cleaning system working against bacteria that cause gingivitis.
The promising technology was developed and first documented by Forsyth researchers Nikos Soukos and Max Goodson. They found that light with a particular wavelength, typically used in teeth whitening procedures, did also eradicate so-called “black-pigmented bacteria” that are responsible for the inflammation of gum tissue. In addition, their study showed that the proportion of other healthy bacteria increased.
“This suggests that it might one day be feasible to use light to restore a healthy bacterial balance in the mouth, ” Soukos told the Harvard Gazette in 2005.
