6 minute read
How Dr. Donnie Wiggins is Bridging the Gap Between Sustainability and Dentistry
Dr. Luke Shapiro, DDS
Dr. Donnie Wiggins is a general dentist from Clevand, Ohio, living and working in New York City. Dr. Wiggins completed dental school at Tufts University and his residency at Kings County. He is also the CEO of Syber, a biotech start-up focused on biodegradable plastics. The initial goal was to bring environmentally friendly toothbrushes to the market but now they have expanded to all commodity plastics because the problem stems deeper than just the dental industry.
HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START IN DENTISTRY?
My dental career started early in this vocational program that I had the opportunity to do in high school where half the day I would do high school and the other half I would do dental assisting. My mom told me that I had to do this program and I had to decide between dental assisting, nursing, graphic design and something with construction. So I had options.
WHY DENTISTRY?
So to be honest, the instructor at the time was super charismatic. High energy and she made it seem really cool, really fun. And also, I mean, I was in high school. There were a lot of girls around. So I was like, this could be kind of fun. But then I got into it and I really enjoyed it and was really good at it.
AND WAS THAT ALL OF HIGH SCHOOL?
Just the last two years of high school - junior and senior year. I got a certificate in dental assisting and radiology and if I wanted to I could have gone to work as a dental assistant straight out of high school. But obviously I went the whole way.
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN CREATING A DENTAL SUSTAINABILITY COMPANY?
I noticed the waste that is produced in dentistry, and I noticed it when we were training and saw the collection of toothbrushes and paste and plastic barriers and things like that. And then from research I found out that 1 billion toothbrushes are thrown away every year. It is a crazy statistic that I found and really propelled me into action. So I ended up creating a recycling program through this company called Terracycle. We were recycling oral hygiene appliances, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, floss containers, all the packaging. But then COVID happened and the program shut down, but I still wanted to do something.
At the time I had a relationship with the Dean of Research, Dr. Kugel, who is now my partner, and we came up with this idea for a biodegradable toothbrush.
SO YOU DID THIS WHILE YOU WERE AWAY FROM SCHOOL DURING COVID?
Yeah, we were all remote. We were just trying to find something to do, to promote the idea of recycling toothbrushes. So I met with Dr. Kugel and we came up with the idea of a biodegradable toothbrush. There’s the bamboo toothbrushes and other similar ones, but we feel like they haven’t resonated with a lot of consumers. We use a silk material that we process a certain way.
LIKE SILK MADE FROM A SHIRT?
Yes but we process it a certain way to create a hard bioplastic that emulates a normal plastic.
HOW DO YOU KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT SILK? DO YOU HAVE A BACKGROUND IN IT?
No. So my major in undergrad was biology and then I got a master’s in biomedical sciences. So no engineering or product design background. I’m just interested in life.
WHAT ABOUT DR. KUGEL?
Dr. Kugel has a lot of background in research in general and in materials. He was working with silk, in the sustainability realm of medicine. He also had a close relationship with our partner, Dr. David Kaplan, who was the head of the Silk Lab at the main campus at Tufts. I was then introduced to one of his PhD students. She taught me how to process silk and then we worked together for 3 years to create an actual tangible prototype.
SO HOW IS SILK MADE?
From moths - they make silk. The lab has moths and cocoons. We take it at its primal stage of a silk cocoon and process it in a way to make it bioplastic.
AND YOU HAVE A PATENT ON THE PROCESS?
Yes we have a provisional patent which has allowed us to work on it and get the ball rolling. My partners also have multiple patents unrelated to the company.
HOW DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY WORK?
So the process that allows this technology to break down on its own is 1) the way that we process it and 2) what we put in it. And so we put a biocompatible enzyme essentially or a catalyst to make a breakdown when we want based on the concentration of that enzyme that we put in there.
AND HOW IS THIS WHOLE THING FUNDED?
Initially there were a lot of grants from Dr. Kugel and Dr. Kaplan. But now that we want to take this to market, we are trying to raise money to begin the process of building a business.
WHAT’S THAT PROCESS LIKE?
It’s difficult - so difficult. Like right now what we’re doing is creating a pitch deck to tell investors this is what we do. This is who we are. This is why you should invest in this technology. And so it’s a very curated way to ask for money because you’re telling a story. And at this stage of where we’re at, it’s more of an idea than anything because we don’t have any revenue. We don’t have a final product to put on the shelf.
WHERE DO YOU SEE THE WORLD IN 20 OR 30 YEARS? DO YOU THINK EVERYONE WILL BE USING THIS SILK TOOTHBRUSH?
No but I think this just allows people the option. And by that time, it’s hopefully so comparable to traditional plastic that, you know, people will make the conscious decision to say, okay, this is a similar price. This looks exactly the same, feels the same, does the same thing, but it’s better for the environment. And I don’t have to think about recycling it. Most of plastic production is in packaging - over 40%. So that’s another big market. Agriculture is another market we’re looking at. So it is highly possible that at the end this isn’t even really a mainly dental company.
Dr. Lucas Shapiro is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine, where he received his Doctor of Dental Surgery. He completed his post-doctoral orthodontic training at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. He currently practices orthodontics at Lemchen Salzer Ortho in NYC. He started the Instagram page @ futuredentists , works with the educational organization @ignitedds, and has an orthodontic tiktok page @drshap
