In the Spotlight: Toothsure Co-Founders Dr. Greg Baker & Dr. Brandon Wilde on Middle Tech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS8nE6GeFbk

We're excited to share that Toothsure was recently featured on the Middle Tech podcast, where co-founders Dr. Greg Baker and Dr. Brandon Wilde sat down to talk about the company we're building here in Hazard, Kentucky — and the problem we've set out to solve.

And it's a big one. Hospital-acquired pneumonia is the number one hospital-acquired infection in the United States. With 30 to 40 million hospital admissions every year, even a half-percent infection rate means thousands of people get seriously ill — sometimes fatally — from something that often starts in the mouth.

Dr. Baker spent 37 years as a practicing dentist, consulting in hospitals, nursing homes, and ICUs across Eastern Kentucky. Again and again, he saw the same thing: patients with poor oral care developing infections they never should have gotten. He later collaborated with others, including Dr. Wilde, innovating to optimize oral hygiene in hospitals and beyond to mitigate the risk of potentially fatal infections.

The problem isn't the nurses. Today's oral care kits are cumbersome, multi-step, 24-hour systems that fall to the bottom of the triage list fast. So Dr. Baker and Dr. Wilde spent months interviewing ICU nurses at multiple hospitals, and designed something they'd actually use: OralVac and OralVac+, preloaded toothbrushes with measured-dose delivery and built-in suction. By removing time and friction from oral care, Toothsure helps prevent infections that begin in the mouth and improves patient outcomes.

Watch the feature: Why Hospitals Fail at Oral Care — and the Hazard, KY Startup Fixing It: Toothsure (Middle Tech)

Listen to the full episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.