Young Dental varnish Pen™
Young Dental was developing an innovative, new varnish solution that was easier for dental hygienists to apply to patients’ teeth. Their team searched for outside expertise to assist with the design of the device, and they selected our firm in a collaboration with Solberg Design in Wisconsin due to our combined experience with plastics, dental device design, engineering, ID and design for production.
Challenge
The team at Young Dental developed a new 5% sodium flouride varnish solution, which was performing well in their initial testing. The translucent, no-mix formula was easier for hygienists to work with, and there was no clumping or stringing of the solution during application.
Young Dental set goals for the new applicator design to be intuitive for hygienists to load and easy to use. The handle had to be comfortable and ergonomic to grip and manipulate. In addition, the applicator needed to be designed for manufacturing and assembly for mass production at high quality and relatively low cost.
Solution
In a collaborative effort with Young Dental and Solberg Design, our team at Design Integrity helped to develop the production design of the new Varnish Pen. The Young Dental team came up with the idea to use a foil layered tube, and the applicator was designed as a complete preassembled device with the handle, varnish tube, and tip.
The result was an innovative new dental device design with an “all-in-one” fluoride varnish delivery system that offers a fast, simple and mess-free approach to varnish application. To use the Pen, the hygienist performs a quick twist-and-press operation by twisting the colored tip then squeezing the tube. The Varnish Pen is then ready for hygienists to apply varnish to patients’ teeth in a controlled and accurate manner.
Client benefit
The new Varnish Pen offers clinicians a simple, convenient method of applying fluoride varnish to patients’ teeth. It is easy to load and easy to control the flow of the varnish from tube to teeth. In addition, Varnish Pen eliminates the need for clinicians to deal with difficult packaging and small applicator brushes.
Finally, the device was designed for mass production without sacrificing quality, ergonomics or ease-of-use. Design Integrity’s expertise in ergonomics, rapid prototyping and high volume plastic manufacturing was critical to the rapid and successful product launch. Recently, the Varnish Pen and the new varnish solution were released successfully by Young Dental across the US dental marketplace.
Successful Launch
The revolutionary Varnish Pen was first shared with dental hygienists at the RDH Under One Roof convention in Chicago. The response from the clinicians was overwhelmingly positive.
First impressions from hygienists were that the product was amazing, convenient and “terrific”. Some users expressed that the new Varnish Pen was a lot easier to use as it’s no longer a two-handed operation. The Young Dental Varnish Pen is available through various dental product distribution channels.
“This is amazing! No messing around with opening packages and making sure the product is mixed.”
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