When the parents of her young patients were frustrated by the number of cavities their children needed to be filled, orthodontist-turned-scientist Jilly Nave had a flash of inspiration.
“They had tried everything the pediatric dentist had told them, but every time they went in, the dentist would find a lot of new cavities,” Nave, an associate professor of orthodontics at the Tufts University School of Dentistry and associate professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering, told the school. “They told me, ‘If we could do a test at home to see when these early cavities start, then we could keep up with the dentist visits and not have to fill three to five teeth every time.’”
After about six years in dentistry, Nave returned to school to earn a doctorate in structural biology, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship and an advanced degree in orthodontics. With that scientific foundation, she set out to solve the problem at its root.
Related topics:
