Dr. Brown’s PreVent Pacifier Most inventors have to wait a long time to see their products on the market, if they ever get there. That”s why two of the critical character traits of an inventor must be persistence and patience. Dr. John Davis, a Roanoke, Virginia pediatric dentist, waited 10 years to see his PreVent pacifier on the shelves and online stores of Baby’s R Us. That was finally his Super Bowl.
Davis drew from his own experience to create PreVent, a pacifier that avoids the problems incurred by other pacifiers – suction deformities of a baby’s developing bone structure, the worst cases resulting in a complete collapse of the palate. Davis designed PreVent with a recession in the middle of the pacifier’s nipple to reduce suction.
But the development process was very long, starting with Davis’s many prototypes, working with a prospective manufacturer for several months that turned out not to be a good match, and then starting the search again for a better match. But, in the meantime, he did get a patent on his invention.
Finally, he found a company that was just the right fit – Handi-Craft Co, the company behind the successful Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow baby bottles – but the prototyping and the testing wasn’t over yet.
Finally, just last Fall, Handi-Craft took Dr. Brown’s PreVent to the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas. "That was my Super Bowl; going to meet the buyers at the ABC show," Davis told the Roanoke Times.
Don’t be surprised if soon you don’t see the PreVent Pacifier soon, whenever you’re in a newborn section of a store. They are already selling through BabiesRUs and other retailers.
Yes, the lesson here is that if you’ve got a great idea, persistence and patience pays off, eventually. Davis has plenty of both. During the last few years, while waiting and waiting for others to take action on PreVent, he has invented, prototyped, and used in surgery, his new Rhinogard, a new nasal tube that prevents damage to the nasal passages during intubation procedures.
Source: The Roanoke Times
