Once again the flag of Ghana has been put on the global stage as Lexington John Adjokatse (simply known as LJ) has invented the world’s first combined traditional interdental and dental floss device. It took this father and son three years to develop a unique dental instrument called InterFloss. John and his son LJ are originally from Ghana but are based in Sydney, Australia. They now hold the global patent for their design, a revolutionary inter-dental cavity cleaning device.
The device consists of a handle and a replaceable head. The handle is ergonomically designed with a soft rubber grip and long enough so that users’ fingers do not end up in their mouth during use. The head has a floss and interdental brush connection and rotates in the handle and making a clicking sound while it rotates.
In this interview, they talk about the unusual circumstance leading to their invention designed for better oral hygiene.
The dynamic father and Son Duo decided to open an Indiegogo fund for the floss products to reach more people who might not have the opportunity to get with a Gogo fund campaign of USD$150,000, According to the statement from the Indiegogo campaign sited Interfloss official verified facebook page, the father and son had this to say
Inter~Floss! Your Partner to Better Dental Health We are John and LJ (father and son), Co-Inventors of a revolutionary interdental brush and dental floss solution. I (John) work full time as Project Planning and Controls Specialist, hold a Masters in Advanced Engineering and an LLM in Construction Law and Arbitration. LJ is a Year 8 student in a prestigious college here in Sydney, Australia. The idea of this invention was conceived in 2015 following an intervention from LJ advising me to stop using an interdental brush which was making me bleed. He also advised that I get a dental device that would save time on interdental brushing and flossing as I was spending way too much time using both devices. It turned out there was no ONE device which satisfied LJ’s thought process and we leveraged on this opportunity to create one that would alleviate the pain points of consumers in regards to interdental brushing and flossing, and we called it ‘Inter~Floss’. Inter-Floss is the first idea we both started working on, and as at December 2017 we have come up with six other ideas, including design for a more effective Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) mask (to make sleeping more comfortable for sleep apnoea sufferers). The success of this campaign on Indiegogo is very crucial to the development of the other ideas we are currently working on. As a father, I believe the success of this campaign will boost LJ’s interest and confidence as a young inventor and entrepreneur. And lastly, we will finally feel that our “burning desires” to contribute humankind (general health and comfort of in this instance) has been achieved. We are looking to raise an amount of USD$150,000 to make Inter-Floss available to those who need it. All designs (including 3d models and working prototypes) have been finalised and the mould is currently being manufactured. We have budgeted $80,000 towards mould fabrication cost, manufacturing, tooling, inventory and other manufacturing.
The product is available on www.interfloss.com and it is only sold online on Amazon (US, Canada, UK, and Australia) and at eBay.com.au. Ghana is the first country on the continent where this product will be physically available for sale. It is currently on sale at the pharmacy at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Danpong Pharmacies and also will be in shopping Malls and filling stations soon. For product information, contact Van IVS (Tema Community 8) on 024371745 /055562001
