Alan Johnson was interested in getting his jaw wired shut because of the new technology involved.
The treating physician, Dr. Alan Johnson, hoped that his first-in-human test of a new jaw-fixation device would alleviate the pain and discomfort of traditional treatments for a busted mandible.
Johnson successfully installed the jaw-locking devices on his own teeth that day — merging his roles as facial-trauma doctor, medical device engineer and pioneering research subject, and launching his idea for the Minne Ties jaw-fixation system.
The idea went on to become, in 2017, the first invention out of the University of Minnesota's Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center's Innovation Fellows Program to be commercially marketed. Summit Medical, the Eagan manufacturer of the Minne Ties Agile system, has sold nearly 1,000 units and trained doctors at dozens of hospitals since then. The device took home silver this summer at the 20th annual Medical Design Excellence Awards in New York City.
"The first human who had these devices applied to them was me," said Johnson, the device inventor and head-and-neck surgeon who today practices at Altru Health System in Grand Forks, N.D. "I spent a Saturday afternoon in a room in the Mayo Building there on campus, applying these things to my own teeth, to make sure I had the right [design] and to see if they hurt, things like that. I took lots of pictures on my iPhone."
Many people ended up seeing those photos, including the folks at Summit Medical, which acquired rights to the idea from the U. Summit guided the device through the FDA's 510(k) clearance process, eventually selling the products to hospitals around the country, including the U's Medical Center and Hennepin County Medical Center.
"Overall, there were a few design challenges that our team was able to overcome. But the actual manufacturing process overall is quite straightforward," Summit Medical President Kevin McIntosh said. "We figured out how to make it manufacturable, and how to manufacture it. It was basically just a great idea when we saw it."
The basic idea at the heart of the device is to use specialized zip-ties instead of sharp metal wires to keep someone's jaw closed for several weeks.