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Sometimes the simplest ideas come when you least expect them. Just ask Louisiana State University dentist Ronald Lemon, who got his inspiration for a new dental cement delivery device seven years ago while watching a documentary on the Hoover Dam.
Lemon says for years dentists were plagued with the problem of applying a mixture called mineral trioxide aggregate during denial surgery. The MTA was developed in the early 1990s and was wellreceived by the dental community as the most effective compound available for use around tooth roots and exposed nerves. However, in their search for an effective method of delivering the material, dentists wound up destroying other devices and wasting a lot of the expensive mixture.
The problem was that MTA's composition was similar to a mixture of sand and water. The gritty substance would dog the devices it passed through, making the material virtually unusable.
Enter Lemon. The documentary he watched on the...