What began with tinkering in his home workshop has turned into a major invention for a Wagga dentist.
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Mark Wotherspoon started out with a hot glue gun and a couple of dish-washing brushes as he tried to come up with a system for cleaning removable oral devices like dentures and mouth guards.
The result is Dr Mark's HyGenie, a product range that was five years in the development.
It is now on the market, after Dr Wotherspoon secured a federal government grant of $566,715 in 2018 to get the product over the line.
"I had the idea for the product trying to figure out how to help my patients look after their dental appliance hygiene needs in my shed," the dentist of more than 30 years said.
"Well over half of our investors are Riverina based and have supported us every step of the way."
Dr Wotherspoon said the vision for the business had been to launch three products, but the product range was now 10, which will serve a much larger dental appliance user need.
"We are advancing discussions for distribution in six countries," he said.
"We have people all over the world who believe in our brand and concept.
"The belief we have received from the Riverina and Australian governments means more to us than we can say.
"The more we can contribute to improving the oral health and hygiene of dental appliance wearers, the more likely it will be we can contribute to reducing the incidence or oral disease in those wearers and improve their lives as well as lower the preventable oral disease costs on our health care system."
Dr Mark's HyGenie was formally launched in Wagga by Member for Riverina and Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack.