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Midwest Dental Partners With OralDNA Labs to Enhance Patient Care Through Diagnostic Testing for Periodontal Disease
| Source: OralDNA Labs
NASHVILLE, TN--(Marketwire - January 8, 2009) - OralDNA Labs, Inc. (www.OralDNA.com), a
specialty diagnostics company focused on bringing advanced laboratory
testing to the dental community, today announced it has reached an
agreement to provide diagnostic testing for practices within Midwest Dental
and its western division, Mountain Dental. Midwest Dental is a dental
management company headquartered in Mondovi, WI with over 60 clinics in
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Colorado.
Under the terms of this multi-year agreement, OralDNA will provide
diagnostic laboratory testing to Midwest Dental to enable state-of-the-art
diagnosis of periodontal disease. The tests will enable better
identification and, consequently, earlier treatment of the bacterial
infection that causes periodontal disease. Periodontal disease is estimated
to affect three quarters of the adult population in the United States.
"We are pleased to be at the forefront of bringing diagnostic testing to
dentistry in order to treat periodontal disease with the same importance as
we do inflammatory infections in other areas of the body," said Dr. Jeff
Moos, president and CEO of Midwest Dental. "As we continue to understand
and identify the systemic link between oral health and full body health, we
feel that providing our patients and clinicians a tool for identifying the
cause and severity of their periodontal infection is critical. This
technology combined with comprehensive clinical care will enhance our
ability to have the most successful treatment outcomes and help their
overall health."
"We could not have asked for a better partner than Midwest Dental to
accomplish our first multi-office practice implementation of diagnostic
testing for periodontal disease," said Brian Carr, president and CEO of
OralDNA Labs. "This is an important step that will ultimately help patients
manage a disease so they can save their teeth and improve their overall
health. It is exciting to have the opportunity to deploy in dentistry the
laboratory testing already so frequently used by physicians, and to have
partners who already use advancing technologies in their practices."
About Midwest Dental (www.midwest-dental.com):
Midwest Dental is a dental management company headquartered in Mondovi, WI
with clinics in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Colorado.
About OralDNA Labs, Inc. (www.OralDNA.com):
OralDNA Labs, Inc. is a specialty diagnostic company created to advance
clinical testing in the dental community. Our goal is to help the dental
profession achieve better clinical outcomes by providing reliable,
definitive and cost effective clinical tests that drive the detection and
prognosis of disease at an earlier, more treatable stage, with an initial
focus on periodontal disease.
Periodontal disease is a bacterial infection that causes an inflammatory
response. Periodontal disease is present in an estimated three quarters of
the adult population in the United States, with 30-35% of this population
having a genetic trait which predisposes these individuals to more serious
forms of the disease. If patients are not properly diagnosed and treated
at early stages, periodontal disease can lead to bone loss, tooth loss and
implant failure. Research now suggests an increased risk to a number of
systemic diseases when chronic periodontal infections are left untreated.
OralDNA offers two DNA-PCR tests for periodontal disease diagnosis and
genetic susceptibility. MyPerioPath(SM) detects the presence and quantity
of specific bacteria associated with periodontal disease. MyPerioID(SM)
PST®, licensed through marketing, sales and distribution agreement with
Interleukin Genetics, provides a means of assessing an individual's genetic
risk for periodontal disease.
The company is also developing an oral HPV test for use in assessing risks
associated with oral cancer. Thereafter, OralDNA intends to develop a
broader menu of clinical laboratory tests for use in oral medicine.