MTH Unboxing: Den­ton Systems

Your den­tal health is the num­ber one prio­ri­ty for Den­ton Sys­tems. The foun­ders Den­nis Wag­ner and Mari­us Lie­fold tell us in the July edi­ti­on of MTH Unboxing about their moti­va­ti­on to start Den­ton Sys­tems and their method to fur­ther deve­lop den­tal medicine.

MTH Acce­le­ra­tor: What did you do befo­re start­ing Den­ton Sys­tems?

Den­nis: I gra­dua­ted as a medi­cal infor­ma­tics spe­cia­list. I then recei­ved an EXIST start­up grant with Mari­us and a pro­fes­sor from the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty Bran­den­burg, and we foun­ded a tele­me­di­ci­ne start­up. I next work­ed as a pro­ject mana­ger in the area of inno­va­ti­on and digi­ta­liza­ti­on, whe­re I car­ri­ed out pro­jects in rural sec­tors and for medi­um-sized com­pa­nies.

Mari­us: In addi­ti­on to the tele­me­di­ci­ne start­up men­tio­ned by Den­nis, I was also a pro­ject mana­ger in the inno­va­ti­on and infor­ma­ti­on manage­ment sec­tor. Befo­re stu­dy­ing medi­cal infor­ma­tics and befo­re working seve­ral years in cli­ni­cal dia­gno­stics, I was a den­tal tech­ni­ci­an and foun­ded my first com­pa­ny in my ear­ly 20s. I have been an entre­pre­neur for six years and work­ed in the life sci­en­ces for 15 years. 

MTH Acce­le­ra­tor: What do you do when you’­re not working at Den­ton Sys­tems?

Den­nis: My sche­du­le is pro­ba­b­ly like most start­up foun­ders: you work a lot on your start­up. Even when I’m not actively working on Den­ton, I‘m always loo­king at what others are doing and thin­king if we can use this for Den­ton. I am a water polo play­er, and alt­hough I have not been able to play becau­se of COVID-19, things are slow­ly ope­ning up. Other­wi­se, I walk my dog and use this time to think about the busi­ness or I walk-and-talk with entre­pre­neur fri­ends.

Mari­us: I agree with Den­nis, the tran­si­ti­on bet­ween work and pri­va­te life is often flu­id during the entre­pre­neu­ri­al pha­se. Howe­ver, it rare­ly feels like work. But out­side of working on Den­ton, and exclu­ding the acti­vi­ties that were put on pau­se due to COVID-19, I enjoy lis­tening to music and spen­ding time in and around the water of the Havel Valley. 

MTH Acce­le­ra­tor: What is Den­ton Sys­tems?

Den­ton Sys­tems: We offer the first “back­up for tee­th.” Just like a com­pu­ter, the pre­vious “sta­te” can be res­to­red if neces­sa­ry. Our paten­ted pro­ce­du­re makes it pos­si­ble for the first time to repro­du­ci­b­ly store the den­ti­ti­on sys­tem in all dimen­si­ons, inde­pendent­ly of the tee­th. In this way, the healt­hy, pain-free initi­al situa­ti­on of a pati­ent can be recon­s­truc­ted at any time, and sym­ptoms such as hea­da­ches, back pain, tin­ni­tus, etc., which are often cau­sed by chan­ges in the sta­tus of the den­ti­ti­on, can be avo­ided. The­r­e­fo­re, cli­ents with neck ten­si­on, for exam­p­le, will not first visit a phy­sio­the­ra­pist, but a den­tist, so that the cau­se and not the sym­ptom is addres­sed.

With our “back­up for the tee­th,” we are trans­fer­ring an estab­lished con­cept from the IT world to the health­ca­re indus­try, spe­ci­fi­cal­ly to dentistry.

MTH Acce­le­ra­tor: Why the MTH Acce­le­ra­tor?

Den­ton Sys­tems: The MTH Acce­le­ra­tor, with its loca­ti­on, gre­at net­work, and part­ners, has been a tre­men­dous help in navi­ga­ting important ques­ti­ons and issues. The sup­port has assis­ted us a lot, espe­ci­al­ly with fun­ding and training. 

MTH Acce­le­ra­tor: Why Den­ton Sys­tems?

Den­ton Sys­tems: As medi­cal infor­ma­tics spe­cia­lists, we have a strong inte­rest in solu­ti­ons which posi­tively impact socie­ty. The idea behind Den­ton Sys­tems was also born during con­ver­sa­ti­ons about the dai­ly work of both our den­tist and our foun­der. Our den­tist was tired of not being able to give pati­ents the smi­le and func­tion­a­li­ty they once had, becau­se he sim­ply lacked the pro­ce­du­res and infor­ma­ti­on to do so. Mari­us, as a for­mer den­tal tech­ni­ci­an, also knows this pro­blem well, which is why it is so much fun as a foun­der to deve­lop and mar­ket such a pro­duct for the high­ly com­plex health­ca­re market. 

MTH Acce­le­ra­tor: What is your mis­si­on?

Den­ton Sys­tems: We want to fur­ther deve­lop defect-ori­en­ted (den­tal) medi­ci­ne into a lifel­ong and, abo­ve all, pre­ven­ti­ve con­cept. We are taking the first step with our “back­up for the tee­th,” with the Den­ton Cloud ser­ving as an inter­di­sci­pli­na­ry inter­face for all health data. We will then move on to build the DEN­TON 365 plat­form, which is an ope­ra­ting sys­tem for digi­tal den­tal ser­vices. Here we cen­ter Den­ton ser­vices and third-par­ty pro­vi­ders on one plat­form used for pati­ent-cen­te­red and pre­ven­ti­ve care. 

About the MTH Unboxing

The MTH Acce­le­ra­tors port­fo­lio is gro­wing and gro­wing. But what exact­ly do the teams do and, abo­ve all, what did they do befo­re they beca­me entre­pre­neurs? In MTH Unboxing, our new inter­view series, we shed some light on the sub­ject and intro­du­ce the teams in more detail. MTH Acce­le­ra­tor Babels­berg is the pro­gram for start­ups and foun­ding teams from the metro­po­li­tan regi­on who are loo­king to explo­re tech­no­lo­gies and digi­tal busi­ness models and take their com­pa­nies to the next level.

Learn more about the pro­gram, our latest port­fo­lio start­ups and events in our newsletter.