FiteBac Dental, R.D. Abbott partner for advanced products in medical, dental

MARIETTA, Ga.—A trio of companies are working together to revolutionize medical and dental devices, according to FiteBac Dental, a manufacturer of antimicrobial compounds and additives in those industries.

FiteBac said Oct. 12 that it will look to the materials science expertise of R.D. Abbott Co. Inc. and its silicone product manufacturing subsidiary, NovationSi, to help in the endeavor, as FiteBac looks to "synergize the effectiveness of FiteBac's non-leaching, durable and persistent bactericidal, fungicidal and virucidal technology in synthetic and silicone polymer systems."

"By combining FiteBac's revolutionary antimicrobial technology with R.D. Abbott's and NovationSi's elastomers expertise, we're poised to bring more life-changing antimicrobial products to market in short order," said Kirk Kimmerling, founder of FiteBac.

Since its inception in 2016, Kimmerling said FiteBac has been cited in numerous scientific publications as the company pushes advanced applications in composites, coatings, textiles and pharmaceuticals.

The collaboration between FiteBac, R.D. Abbott and NovationSi is evidence of the growth in these advanced application spaces—which typically evolve from a partnership between academia and the industries themselves.

"The collective efforts from R.D. Abbott's and NovationSi's team of rubber technologists and materials scientists discovered proprietary ways to bring FiteBac Technology to efficiently enhance the antimicrobial properties of silicone elastomers," said Rick Ziebell, vice president of technology at R.D. Abbott. "Employing FiteBac in this manner has shown to decrease biofilm formation on the surface of a cured silicone elastomer and can enhance silicone's use as a medical device."

FiteBac said its antimicrobial compounds will be implemented with custom third-stream additives for liquid silicone rubber in the NovaSperse brand of NovationSi (in the U.S.). Compounds for HCR will be sold by NovationSi with its PURmix brand (in the U.S.).

Final products include such items as dental composites, dentures, crowns, bonding agents/adhesives, sealants, cements, endodontic sealers, resin systems, 3D-printed materials, implants, flexible silicone mouth guards, night guards, retainers and mouth rinses.