We all know the importance of good oral hygiene (you do brush twice a day, don’t you?), but despite its obvious impact on our mouths as well as our overall health, there hasn’t been a whole heap of innovation when it comes to teeth. We brush. We floss. We use interdental tools. We use mouthwash. Proclaim is hoping to change that with its Custom-Jet Oral Health System, and it just raised $15 million in Series B funding to help bring it to the world.
“Oral care has not fundamentally changed beyond brushes, picks and manually flossing with string (or water) in centuries,” said Heberto Calves, Proclaim’s CEO, when speaking to TechCrunch. “We’re changing all that in a big way.”
Proclaim’s Custom-Jet Oral Health System looks a bit like a SCUBA diver’s mouthpiece, but instead of being hooked up to an air tank, it’s connected to a “hydro station” so that it can pulse 60 jets of pressurized water into your mouth over the course of seven seconds. Each mouthpiece is 3D printed according to an individual’s mouth, with the aim of directing the plaque and bacteria-shifting fluid to exactly where each person needs it according to their anatomy.
Custom-printed mouth pieces mean that the 60 water jets go where you need ’em. Image Credits: Proclaim
Proclaim isn’t intended to replace brushing, but to work in conjunction with it. It claims that using its jet system alongside your regular brush is clinically proven to be 10 times more effective for reducing gum bleeding, nearly 13 times more effective for reducing gum inflammation and almost eight times more effective in reducing plaque buildup when compared to daily brushing and string flossing.
While good oral health is important in and of itself, Calves believes that Proclaim has a part to play in improving people’s general health too:
“We can help people live healthier for longer by addressing an everyday problem that underlies much bigger, painful and expensive public health problems,” said Calves, “including heart disease, arthritis, diabetes and dementia (to name just a few). We provide an unbelievably effective, easy to use and enjoyable solution to reduce harmful bacteria throughout the body, starting with gum disease.”
Speaking more specifically about the fundraise, Calves explained what it will unlock:
“Our goal with this fundraise is to provide the necessary capital for the initial commercialization of Proclaim, setting the stage for a growth C round in Q3 2024,” said Calves. “Our next steps are to begin scaling the business as we drive awareness and education among dental professionals and consumers.”
Education and awareness is something of a bottleneck for Proclaim:
“The biggest challenge we are facing as we begin unveiling Proclaim to the world is educating and anchoring Proclaim as a personalized solution that will not only give you your healthiest gums, cleanest teeth and freshest breath,” said Calves, “but also protect your overall health.”
Helping Proclaim to overcome these challenges are its lead investors Khosla Ventures and Global Asset Capital, as well as those with oral health expertise, Ensemble Innovation Ventures, SpringRock Ventures and Revere Capital. There were also some individual investors in the oversubscribed round: Executive Board Chair Woody Scal, who is the former chief business officer of Fitbit, and Frederic Moll, founder of robotic surgery pioneers Intuitive Surgical and Auris Health.
In the long term, Proclaim is aiming to help people achieve healthier gums and cleaner teeth as well as help prevent a number of systemic diseases throughout the body.
“Our ultimate goal,” said Calves, “is to establish a new category and platform in at-home oral health care and preventative overall health that effectively addresses these consumer needs in a straightforward logical manner.”