SaliTect is developing a chairside, AI-driven platform designed to deliver a periodontal result from a non-invasive saliva sample within minutes. It is built for the dental clinic and aimed at finding disease while prevention is still an option.
The Problem
Periodontitis affects up to 40% of Swedish adults, yet more than half of patients never receive a full periodontal assessment. Today's tools detect the disease only after the damage is done — leaving prevention, the affordable option, structurally out of reach.
Metal probing and radiography measure damage that has already occurred, rather than current disease activity — so a confirmed diagnosis arrives after the window for prevention has closed.
Lab tests are accurate but slow. Rapid biomarker tests return results quickly but are less reliable. Neither is built for routine, high-volume use in a general practice.
Rapid tests track a single molecule in a fluid whose composition varies widely between patients and across the day — a known challenge for tests that rely on one biomarker.
Treatment costs are high, and untreated periodontitis is independently associated with other chronic diseases — turning a diagnostic gap into a broader cost for the health system.
Sources: prevalence, Wahlin et al., 2018. Periodontal assessment, Svenskt kvalitetsregister för Karies och Parodontit (SKaPa), 2022.
How It Works
The SaliTect platform is designed to combine a modular sensor cartridge, a chairside analyzer unit, and digital decision support for the clinician. Rather than measuring a single biomarker, a multi-electrode array captures a complex electrochemical profile of the sample, which an AI model interprets. The design target is a result within minutes with no lab logistics, aiming to reveal disease before a probe or an X-ray can find it.
The patient provides a small saliva sample at the chairside. Non-invasive and quick, with no laboratory logistics required.
The sample is loaded into a modular sensor cartridge, designed to be single-use and low-cost, which carries the multi-electrode array at the heart of the measurement.
The cartridge is inserted into a compact, reusable analyzer connected by cable to the clinic computer. The analyzer captures an electrochemical profile across multiple electrode materials, and an AI model processes it. This approach is intended to handle the biological variability that constrains single-biomarker tests.
Digital decision support translates the raw sensor data into a risk score on the clinician's desktop screen, and the clinician makes the final decision. The platform is designed to write the result into the patient record, so the finding can be discussed with the patient in the same visit. Repeated tests are intended to support monitoring over time.
SaliTect is at TRL 3–4. A functional proof-of-concept prototype exists in a lab environment and the digital interface prototype is in user testing. The AI model has been trained and validated on synthetic data (Akin et al., 2025). A first set of clinical saliva samples has been collected under approval from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority, and evaluation on clinical samples is pending. Product imagery on this page is an AI-aided visualization of the existing prototypes.
Market Opportunity
Approximately 3,000 clinics in Sweden and up to 200,000 across the EU, with dentists and dental hygienists as primary users. The platform is designed to create a billable, same-visit diagnostic service that fits inside the existing consultation flow with little to no implementation cost.
The architecture is designed so that the same analyzer and AI engine can take swappable cartridges and algorithm packages — extending to other systemic indications and, beyond medicine, to industrial fluid quality. One core technology, multiple markets, with each validated study intended to build a proprietary dataset that compounds over time.
Revenue and payback figures are modelled projections from a base scenario, not realised results. The scenario assumes 365 tests per clinic per year, €4,000 per analyzer unit, €20 per cartridge, a €150 monthly subscription, and €40 patient billing per test. Market sizing per Grand View Research (2025–2030), Botelho et al. (2021), the Global Burden of Disease study (2021), and Nascimento et al. (2024). Clinic counts per Tandvårds- och läkemedelsförmånsverket (2023), and estimated from CED (2023) and Pälvärinne et al. (2019).
Competitive Position
Current periodontal diagnostics force a choice between accuracy and speed. SaliTect is designed to resolve that trade-off by applying pattern-recognition AI to a multi-electrode profile. The comparison below sets out our design targets against products already on the market — SaliTect's performance is still to be evaluated on clinical data.
| Dimension | SaliTect (target) | PerioSafe® (Dentognostics) | MyPerioPath® (OralDNA) | Oral Genome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core technology | Multi-electrode array + AI | Single biomarker (aMMP-8), lateral flow | qPCR-based bacterial DNA detection | Lateral flow, 7 biomarkers + AI |
| Time to result | Target: minutes, chairside | About 5 minutes, chairside | 5–10 days, mail-in lab | Under 15 minutes |
| Published accuracy | Evaluation on clinical samples pending | About 84% sensitivity, 79% specificity | High for specific bacteria | Wellness use, no clinical claim |
| Variability handling | Design intent: AI normalizes noise | Single marker, sensitive to sample variability | Lab-controlled only | AI-aided, but lateral-flow bound |
| Lab required | ✓ No | ✓ No | ✗ Yes | ✓ No |
| Regulatory setting | IVDR Class B planned | CE-marked, clinical | US laboratory test, clinical | Consumer wellness product |
| Price | Target €15–25 per cartridge | About €64 per test, reader about €4,285 | USD 99–160 per test | About USD 59 per test |
| Clinic revenue model | Potentially high-volume tool | Adjunctive, not routine | Low-volume specialty | Consumer, not clinical |
| Platform expandability | Designed for multi-indication | ✗ Single indication | ✗ Single indication | Limited |
SaliTect entries describe design targets for a platform in development, not measured performance. Comparator products: PerioSafe® (Dentognostics GmbH, Germany), MyPerioPath® (OralDNA Labs, Quest Diagnostics, USA), Oral Genome, Inc. (USA). PerioSafe accuracy from a published screening study. Competitor prices as publicly listed in June 2026 and subject to change.
Team
Formed at Malmö University and Linköping University with a deliberate mix of biomedical laboratory science, analytical chemistry, machine learning, clinical periodontology, and interaction design — the core competencies needed to take the platform from R&D, through regulatory, to commercialization.
Partners & Advisors
Working with institutional research partners, a clinical network spanning two universities, regulatory advisory, and incubator support — covering the path from early-stage development toward market entry.
Get in touch
Whether you represent a dental network, a diagnostics company, a research institution, or an investment fund, we want to hear from you. SaliTect is actively seeking clinical sites, industry collaborators, and investors aligned with medtech and preventive care.
We have received your enquiry and will get back to you as soon as we can, usually within a few working days.
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