Podcast: How Lura Health plans to change dentistry through salivary diagnostics

In this episode, DrBicuspid's Kevin Henry interviewed Daniel Weinstein, CEO and co-founder of Lura Health, a medical device and health monitoring company. Weinstein shares his background in engineering and how it led him to dentistry.

Lura Health aims to transform health monitoring by providing continuous monitoring of oral health markers through saliva. The company's vision is to fill the gap in managing patients' health trajectories between dental visits. Weinstein emphasized the importance of failure and flexibility in entrepreneurship and highlighted the role of Cellerant Consulting in advancing Lura Health. He also discussed the challenges of developing a small, wearable sensor for dental applications.

"I really think that the product has the potential to transform the way people think about their patients' health journeys," Weinstein said. "Today, there is a big push for preventive dentistry. In the 1990s, dental got a lot of flack for being drill and fill. And the 2000s was really the era of preventive care of camera, of data-driven EMR systems, and really of kind of catching up to the rest of the value-based care, as well as really catching up to the rest of the thought leadership, or in some cases, even paving the way in dental to deliver more personalized and precise care to patients."

"So how do we do that? Well, we know that tooth decay is the most common chronic condition in the world. We know that it's also preventable if addressed at the right time. And we also know that it's a factor of lifestyle more than just one particular thing. It's not patients who are really high risk because they have xerostomia or dry mouth and all they need to do is just brush and floss in the morning and night and they'll be fine. It's not a mouth-breather who has sleep apnea and who's suffering erosion from low salivary flow at night who needs to take better care of their mouth during the day. That makes no sense ... It's a multifaceted condition. And I think right now, everything is spot-checks."

Takeaways

• Lura Health is a medical device and health monitoring company focused on the continuous monitoring of oral health markers through saliva.
• The company's vision is to provide oral health data and risk assessments to patients on the go, enabling more personalized and collaborative care journeys.
• Entrepreneurs should embrace failure as a learning opportunity and be flexible in adapting to changing circumstances.
• Cellerant Consulting plays a crucial role in connecting Lura Health with key players in the dental industry and providing market feedback.

Chapters

 0:00 -- Introduction and background
 2:11 -- From engineering to dentistry
 4:33 -- Lura Health and its impact on dentistry
 6:37 -- Focus on dental health markers
 8:37 -- An entrepreneurial mindset
11:25 -- The importance of failure and flexibility
19:15 -- Product life cycle and future expectations
23:07 -- The vision for Lura Health
24:11 -- Challenges with sensor development
27:27 -- Connecting with Lura Health
28:38 -- Closing remarks

Learn more at https://www.lurahealth.com.