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Spiffies Baby Tooth Wipes

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Tucson pediatrician launches a different type of baby wipes What Dr. Scholl's is to feet, Dr. Ray may soon be to infants' teeth.
Posted: August 16, 2005
By day, Ray Wagner is a pediatrician at El Rio Health Center, a nonprofit clinic devoted to providing health care to the poor and uninsured.
At night and on weekends, he is a businessman and entrepreneur pushing a product of his own invention, Spiffies Baby Tooth Wipes.
Spiffies are individually packaged disposable tooth and gum cleaners for infants and toddlers available in the oral care aisle at Bashas' supermarkets.
Bashas' is the first major retail chain to distribute Spiffies, the first commercial offering from Dr. Ray's Products LLC. Spiffies are also available at Sunflower Markets in Tucson and on the Internet at www.drraysproducts.com <http://www.drraysproducts.com> .
A box of 48 Spiffies wipes sells for $5.89 at the Internet site.
In his medical practice, Wagner, 52, has seen many young children with dental problems, a point driven home to him when he treated a 2 1/2-year-old boy who had a high fever and swollen jaw.
"It turned out he had a severely infected tooth and the infection had spread to the jawbone and the tissues of his face," Wagner said. "All his teeth had cavities. He had to be admitted to the hospital and given intravenous antibiotics."
Wagner said the boy suffered from an ailment once called "baby bottle mouth." It is now better known as "early childhood caries."
"Early childhood caries is the most prevalent infectious disease among children in the United States and the world," Wagner said. "It is preventable."
Until children are old enough to brush their teeth, pediatricians and dentists have long recommended that parents wipe the teeth and gums with a damp washcloth.
Wagner's daughter Sarah Barker learned in cleaning the teeth of Wagner's first granddaughter, Baylee, that the recommendation was easier said than done.
"Dad, have you ever found a clean washcloth to wash your baby's teeth three times a day?" Wagner recalled his daughter asking.
The idea behind Spiffies, a towelette that can be wrapped around a finger, was born.
"I put two and two together and decided to make a disposable baby tooth wipe that was convenient, hygienic and efficient for cleaning baby's teeth and gums," Wagner said.
The product contains Xylitol -a safe, natural sweetener found in fruit and vegetables -that has been proved to prevent tooth decay and gum disease. Wagner added natural grape flavoring for taste.
Wagner is confident Spiffies will take off.
"I believe it will become a standard of infant oral care and first oral hygiene application of choice for mothers around the world," he said. "I believe in five to 10 years this will be a universally applied product.
Spiffies are manufactured at a plant in South Carolina chosen by Wagner because of high quality-control standards.
Wagner is developing other products for Dr. Ray's: a toothbrush designed to be used by adults to clean the teeth of infants and a mouth wash and toothpaste for children containing Xylitol.
While Wagner is the technical expert behind Dr. Ray's, he credits his wife, Marti, with performing most business tasks.
"I never imagined I'd be spending most of my days and weekends working on this," Marti Wagner said, "but it's fun because Ray and I do it together."
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