LOWELL, Mass.– RevBio, Inc., announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start a 20-patient clinical trial to examine the safety and efficacy of a more rapidly replaced, pH modified porous formulation of the company’s bone adhesive biomaterial called Tetranite® to immediately stabilize dental implants following tooth extractions. This new formulation has shown evidence of a more biologically active bone substitution. While not osteoinductive, this patent-pending version of Tetranite has shown characteristics which may be described as “osteopromotive.”
The clinical trial will be conducted by Paul A. Fugazzotto, DDS, a world-renowned periodontist based in Massachusetts, who has over 30 years of experience placing dental implants, and Kanyon Keeney, DDS, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon based in Virginia whose clinical practice focuses exclusively on dental implant surgery. “This product is truly transformational,” said Dr. Fugazzotto. “Tetranite will revolutionize how implant dentistry will be performed. The adhesive properties and handling characteristics of this material are incomparable to any product on the market.”
Teeth are extracted due to damage from traumatic injuries, tooth decay, or gum disease. The current standard of care consists of multiple staged surgical procedures to restore a patient’s dentition with prosthetic crowns supported by dental implants. Frequently, extraction sites are too large for dental implants to achieve primary stability through conventional mechanical engagement. Instead, patients must undergo a costly, complex, and lengthy process including a preliminary bone grafting surgery before receiving a dental implant. Based on company surveys, each year in the U.S. approximately 2.1 million implants are eventually placed into initially unstable tooth extraction sites that first must receive a bone graft. The use of Tetranite to stabilize an unstable implant will allow for the immediate placement of dental implants which otherwise could not be placed until the initial bone graft has healed to form new bone. As a result, the Tetranite® biomaterial will help reduce the duration and complexity of these dental implant procedures, lessen patient pain and recovery time, and reduce the overall cost of care thereby providing greater patient access for the treatment of tooth loss.
“We are truly excited to conduct this study with both Dr. Fugazzotto, who will initiate this study enrolling the first cases, along with Dr. Keeney,” said Alan Pollack, RevBio’s Senior Director of Dental Clinical Operations. “The improvements we have made to the technology have accelerated both the bone substitution profile and the product’s adhesive strength. Having also just recently received IRB approval, we look forward to enrolling our first patients in the coming weeks.”
