Invention could help dentists, doctors in developing countries

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Leah Kenttämaa-Squires [LAY-uh KENT-tuh-mah] didn't have much to do while she lay reclined in a dental chair waiting for her dentist, a bib tied around her neck.

Inventors Kyle Amick and Leah Kenttämaa-Squires demonstrate the Mantis reclining chair they developed. The chair can be used as a dolly to transport medical supplies and as a medical seat to treat patients. The device is designed for use in developing countries and is available for licensing through the Purdue Research Foundation's Office of Technology Commercialization. Amick is a Purdue mechanical engineering graduate student and Kenttämaa-Squires is a Purdue industrial design alumnus. (Photo provided by Purdue Research Foundation)

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So the recent Purdue University industrial design graduate thought about how a dentist's office could be more comfortable and how would she design a dental office. Those thoughts led to wondering how patients in developing countries receive dental care. Where do they go? How do Doctors Without Borders volunteers treat dental patients and medical patients in the field? How do they transport equipment?

By the time her dentist arrived, Kenttämaa-Squires already had thought of an invention for a new kind of dental and medical chair that makes medical equipment easier to maneuver and transport.

"When I got home I researched on the Internet about what's on the market, what's been used and what are the problems," she said. "Then I interviewed dentists and doctors about what they needed to treat patients in Third World countries."

The result is Mantis, a patent-pending portable medical chair that can be used for orthodontic care, physical treatments and medical examinations. It can be folded into a dolly to carry medical supplies needed by physicians and dentists working in less-than-ideal hospital-regulated environments. The chair's components include an adjustable headrest, and it gives occupants the ability to lean back in an ergonomically correct position for full-body extension for dental or medical care. It also needed to be lightweight for transportation purposes.

"We call the chair the Mantis because of its design to morph into different shapes for different uses," Kenttämaa-Squires said.

The first goal was to design a practical and comfortable chair that could compete with similar devices already on the market.

"Current convertible portable chairs cost thousands of dollars," Kenttämaa-Squires said. "We wanted to create one that worked just as well but also is cost-effective so it can be used in Third World countries."

She collaborated with Purdue graduate student Kyle Amick [AY-mick] to build the chair.

"Traditional, stationary dental chairs are motorized to move up and down or tilt, but we created a 3-D model on a computer to determine how to begin designing Mantis," Amick said. "Then we worked on a scale model of a dental chair that could be converted into a dolly, and we wanted to create something as mobile as possible knowing there likely wouldn't be portable power sources. So there are no gears or motors in the Mantis."

Once the team had a design, they worked on making it functional and inexpensive.

"It was a real challenge to balance the critical components of cost vs. complexity," Kenttämaa-Squires said. "But we feel we have created that with the Mantis."

A cost for the product has not been determined, but Kenttämaa-Squires said it would be considerably less expensive than current chairs used by dentists.

"If we get a manufacturer or licensing agreement, the chair could be on the market within two years," she said.