Sonendo Inc. is gearing up to roll out a device it says is an improvement over the traditional way of performing root canal surgeries.
The Laguna Hills-based startup, armed with a $35 million round of equity financing announced two weeks ago, is preparing for wider sales of its GentleWave device in the U.S.
GentleWave received Food and Drug Administration clearance in May. It works by delivering broad-spectrum sonic energy through a disposable hand piece to a patient’s tooth root canal, according to Sonendo. The device is designed to loosen and remove all tissue, debris and bacteria located in the root “within minutes,” the company said on its site.
“Because we remove everything, we create a completely clean root canal, and hence, we expect significant improvement in healing, i.e. outcomes, with these procedures,” Chief Executive Bjarne Bergheim said in an interview last week.
“We aim to do a better procedure, and we can also improve the business performance of the practice because they can now offer something that is better for the patient, they can do procedures more [effectively] and create more predictability, efficiency and practice differentiation,” Bergheim said.
Gentle Wave is the first device Sonendo has brought to market. The company has about 85 workers and anticipates hiring more as it puts a chunk of its recently raised funds toward sales and marketing for GentleWave.
“We’re selling direct—we’re hiring our own sales team, sales reps and building out the commercial side of Sonendo,” Bergheim said.
Pranitis
The effort included hiring Leo Pranitis as vice president, sales and marketing. He was previously with Kerr Corp., a subsidiary of what is now known as the KaVo Kerr Group, an Orange-based subsidiary of Washington, D.C.-based Danaher Corp.
Pranitis was “directly responsible for more than 30 new product launches” during his time at Kerr, according to Sonendo’s website.
GentleWave is now in a limited release, according to Bergheim.
“We are starting to place a few units in the United States in select practices just to understand everything around how to place units and support the doctor and patients,” Bergheim said.
Sonendo is aiming for a large market.
Some 40 million root canal procedures are done in the U.S. and Europe annually, Bergheim said.
GentleWave will be marketed to endodontists, who specialize in root canals, and general dentists—Bergheim said that about 75% of all root canals done in the U.S. are by general dentists and the remaining 25% are done by endodontists. He estimates there are 4,500 endodontists who practice in the U.S.
GentleWave was recently showcased at the American Association of Endodontists’ recent annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
The company touts GentleWave as a “disruptive technology” to change the long-entrenched way of performing root canal procedures.
Root canals “are based upon traditional filing, where you try to file the inside of the tooth,” Bergheim said. “Files were invented 200 years ago. Files will only touch 50% to 65% of the canal, so there’s a lot of tissue and bacteria left inside the tooth, and hence the infection continues, and the patient gets pain, and the root canal doesn’t heal.”
Sonendo plans to use the recent round of funding for clinical studies and more technology development, as well as the additions to sales and marketing efforts. The financing was led by Palo Alto-based Meritech Capital Partners—a firm with more than $3 billion under management and that is perhaps best known as an early investor in Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc.
Meritech is “excited about Sonendo’s technology and believe they have the potential to change the standard of care for root canal procedures,” Paul Madera, the firm’s cofounder and managing director, said in a press release. Madera is also a new Sonendo director, bringing the company’s total to nine.
“There’s been an enormous interest to participate [in funding Sonendo],” Bergheim said. “We’ve been fortunate.”
