Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman is presented by The Mac Parkman Foundation
The mission of this show and the foundation is To serve as a source of information, resources, and communications to the community of parents, coaches/Athletic trainers, medical staff, and athletes that are affected by sports-related concussions and to raise awareness of the long-term implications of concussive and sub-concussive trauma to our children.
Broken Brains will also explore how Concussive Trauma impacts our Service Members and Veterans.
Join us every week as Bruce interviews leaders and experts in various Medical fields, as well as survivors of Concussive trauma.
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman
Revolutionizing Sports Safety: How the X Sport Mouthguard Is Protecting Young Athletes
In this eye-opening episode of Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman, host Bruce Parkman sits down with Siegfried "Sig" Settele, co-owner of Bridge the Gap and the innovator behind the cutting-edge X Sport Mouthguard—a revolutionary device designed to protect athletes from concussions and oral trauma.
From youth athletes to elite professionals, concussions continue to threaten long-term brain health in sports. Sig shares his powerful mission to change the game with smart safety technology that combines precision dental fitting with AI-powered sensors to track and report impact data in real-time. This forward-thinking approach allows coaches, trainers, and parents to take immediate, informed action—before it's too late.
This episode dives into:
- Why mouthguards are essential (and often overlooked) in concussion prevention
- How technology is reshaping athlete safety
- The future of injury monitoring with real-time data
- The importance of proactive protection for youth athletes and their growing brains
Whether you're a parent, coach, athlete, or medical professional, this conversation is packed with valuable insights into sports safety, traumatic brain injury prevention, and the next generation of protective gear.
👉 Don’t miss this important episode—follow, like, share, and subscribe to Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts to support the movement toward safer sports for all.
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman is sponsored by The Mac Parkman Foundation
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Repetitive Brain Trauma
02:06 The Journey to Creating Export Mouthguards
08:31 Innovative Design and Technology of Mouthguards
15:26 Importance of Mouthguards for Athletes
18:32 Mechanisms of Concussion Reduction
22:59 The Importance of Proper Mouth Guard Fit
23:40 Concerns About Children in Contact Sports
26:32 Athlete Endorsements and Real-World Applications
28:41 Innovations in AI Sensors for Safety
32:10 The Future of Impact Measurement Technology
37:01 The Mission to Protect Young Athletes
https://www.mpfact.com/headsmart-app/
Website: xsportguards.com
Join Blue Fusion and Horse Soldier Bourbon for the inaugural Special Operations Army vs. Navy Tailgate Event
Celebrate with us and support veteran wellness. Your participation helps fund The Mac Parkman Foundation's Veteran Program and Team American Freedom.
Your sponsorship ensures vital education, screening, and treatment for veteran mental health, aiming to reduce the tragedy of veteran suicide.
Enjoy food, beverages, and live music by Razor’s Edge, one of the top-perform
Produced by Security Halt Media
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Broken Brains with your host, bruce Parkman, sponsored by the Matt Parkman Foundation, where we look at the issue of repetitive brain trauma and the two primary sources of that trauma, which is repetitive head impacts from contact sports and repetitive blast exposure for military veterans, and what are the impacts of those exposures on the brains of these people and resulting in the largest preventable cause of mental illness in this country technicians, scientists, doctors, lawyers, parents around the world to bring you the latest and greatest information, because this issue of RHR and RBE is one of the most poorly understood issues in our medical and psychiatric community today and that's why you have to be informed, because you are the advocate for yourself that knows that you love. Today we have brought another amazing guest on the show. It's Mr Siegfried Sattel.
Speaker 1:He's the co-owner of Bridge, the gap parent company of Export Mouthguards, one of the most innovative mouthguard products on the market today, and is the co-creator. He owns and operates Seattle Sattel Dental Lab, a top dental laboratory in Columbus Ohio serving over 180 dental offices, and he has over 40 years of experience as a master dental technician. And it was him himself who created this amazing product called the Export Mouthpiece which is, right now, the state-of-the-art in athlete protection. It's designed to be more than a protective device, and its performance and safety innovation include advanced shock absorption, custom fit, breathable design, durability and longevity. And for the first time ever, it's now being equipped with AI sensors so that you, the team, the parent and the athlete can track key factors of the impact of your sport on your brain to include what we hope is subconcussive trauma. Mr Sattel, welcome to our show and thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 2:Bruce, how are you doing? It's a pleasure to be here and you can just call me Sig. I welcome everybody and hello, and I'm very excited to be on the program.
Speaker 1:I welcome everybody and hello and I'm very excited to be on the program Cool pitch. So, sig, tell us about you know, before we get into export, tell us what led you on the journey to create a state-of-the-art mouthpiece.
Speaker 2:Well, you touched on it, I am a dental technician for the last 500 years, owner and operator, yeah. So I'm pretty creative with many things. We'll get into that maybe later on or another time. But long story short, the story comes from my son-in-law, who's an amateur hockey player Coming out of COVID. Things weren't as busy as they normally would be right, and many businesses were affected. In that way we had a little extra time on our hands and I have quite a few inventions that I wanted to roll out. And everybody said, sig, just pick one.
Speaker 2:And unfortunately my son-in-law took a puck to the mouth during a game. Now, we all know the, the, the, you know the percussions, what could happen there. And obviously he, he was pretty messed up. You know facial trauma, oral trauma, you name it, and that's with that trauma, you name it, and that's with a mouth guard and the long story short, he is very lucky that he didn't lose any teeth. He had this maxillary fracture, the upper jaw, right you know stitches inside and out. And right then, and there I knew I had to unveil something. And let's face it, this is what I do, this is what I live and breed, right, you know making dental appliances for so long and I knew that something had to change, and it had to change immediately.
Speaker 1:Well, good on you, sir. Thank you, and I'm sorry to hear about your son-in-law, is he okay?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's fine. It took a long time to recover, obviously, but, you know, breaking his upper jaw and having you know everything stitched up and he couldn't eat for a while. I mean, we all know that, we all know what needs to be done with that. But long story short, he recovered. But he was our Guinea pig.
Speaker 2:We made we made so many different, uh, mouth guards for him, uh, to to get, to get you know a human perspective, you know, and we got it to the point where I had to show it to somebody.
Speaker 2:And the next step, bruce, after that was I thought I had something and we showed it to my right-hand man and that's Dr Andy Gilbert. He's a prosthodontist here in Columbus, ohio and he probably has the biggest or the top resume that somebody could lay down. Not only is he a prosthodontist, he's also a by trade, a mechanical engineer, and also he is the team dentist for the Columbus Blue Jackets. And so I welcome him on our team and also I welcome him as an investor. And that led to, you know, great, great team being developed right after that and we were very fortunate to bring in a team that I call an all-star team, bruce, and I'm very blessed with some of the top oral surgeons Dr Rick Sheets, 21 years with the Columbus Blue Jackets as team oral surgeon and also one of the best oral surgeons that probably walks the planet. Also, we're very, very pleased to have Dr Rasim Roy, one of the top neurologists, on our team here in Columbus, ohio. So, yes, I'm blessed to have these individuals believing in the product and having a vision.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what. There's no doubt that a hockey oral surgeon is a very busy man because you know those things fly all over the place. And you're right. I mean I can't imagine taking a puck to the face. I've been playing rugby for 40 years, but you know those things if anybody's ever held a professional hockey puck or any hockey puck in your hand. Those things, I mean, how fast do those things go when they're hit? I mean they're slapped.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're probably pushing probably triple digits for the most part, but I tell you what that probably could have killed them. Let's be honest about it.
Speaker 1:If you would have taken it in the head or something I mean gosh, it probably could have killed them, probably could have killed them. Yeah, so how did you start your journey? Like were you in your garage or something you just started melting wax.
Speaker 2:Yeah, basically the whole concept was already there, I just had to unroll it. I had to make some changes. We started off infusing the mouth guards, the prototypes, with stainless steel. That was a major step. And then, right away, I knew I had to make a quick change and we quickly changed stainless steel into carbon fiber, bruce. We are the world's only mouth guard that is infused with carbon fiber.
Speaker 2:And obviously the question comes when everybody is why carbon fiber? And what is the big deal of carbon fiber? And I'm going to tell you really quick, bruce. The big deal of carbon fiber is it's light as a feather and is five times stronger than stainless steel when we're talking about tensile strength. And it is the framework of our mouth guard. And our mouth guard can pretty much be comparable to a car.
Speaker 2:As we know, all cars have bumpers and the impact, the forcing energy transmits from our triple layer mouth guard and right there the force goes through the absorption layer, bruce, that's our first layer of defense and that would be equivalent to a bumper on a car. So, as I mentioned, the force, the energy transmits through that first layer of defense and leads us right into our second layer of defense, that is, the carbon fiber. That would be equivalent to maybe, a chassis on a car. There the energy gets transmitted to our third layer. Our third layer is a 3D printed ortho resin. That, basically, is a precision fit. So these mouth guards, bruce, when the day they fit is the same, that'll fit in six months, eight months, 10 months. We have some athletes wearing these things over a year. The precision fit. There is no adjustment. We are the world's first three-layer 3D-printed mouthguard with carbon fiber technology. So, yes, it is a game changer.
Speaker 2:I call it the X factor but it's making a difference, and that's how it started, with me having already the blueprint in my head, so when the accident happened, it was a short period of time that we were able to unroll these mouth guards.
Speaker 1:Well, as a businessman, I'm always interested. I always love business models. So you found how long did it take to get from that prototype to, say, your first customer the first time you started delivering these out into the field, and who's using these things?
Speaker 2:now You've got an amazing website, so it looks you're probably looking, pushing close to three years from our prototypes, and it's not just that, we came up with just anything. And now how do we know that we really have something right? Look at all the mouthguards that are out there and we'll elaborate about that here in a minute. But the mouthguards that are currently out there, they say they're the best ones because, you know, anybody can say we make the best pizza, Bruce, because we say so. And so as soon as we had our first prototype, I had Dr Debbie Mandel from Ohio State, who's in charge of all athletic dentistry, all sports dentistry at Ohio State University, Dr Debbie Mandel, and she told me Sig, you're on to something, but I highly recommend you get it tested. And so I scratched my head and did some research and I said to myself no one is doing any testing per se. Why do we need to do that?
Speaker 1:That's exactly why you get a bunch of guys to take pucks in the face or something. Nobody's going to want to test these things.
Speaker 2:No, we Uber tested this thing, bruce. We went to Ottawa University had that tested. We had it twice tested at Auburn University at Ohio State a couple times. And where we test these, bruce, is that we tested at the mechanical engineering department. We do what's called an absorption testing, where we have an apparatus that simulates a human dentition right. So, just like a mouth guard would fit a human, so we take our mouth guards and we fit it on this anatomical jig. That's what we're going to call it an anatomical jig right that simulates what a human dentition would do, and we would fit these mouth guards over this anatomical jig.
Speaker 2:There. This apparatus would actually drop weight, different weights at different intervals, right onto the mouth guards, occlusally, frontally, buccally, left, right, on the sides, and then we would see how much impact right it could withstand. And we would test other mouth guards, the mouth guards. And I'm going to tell you something, bruce anytime, if you're talking tires, steak knives, it doesn't matter If you wind up being five times stronger than the next competitor. That's a huge, huge, huge change.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you what we back our data, we back our science, that's why we had these things tested and so we're proud to say, with carbon fiber. Right, it reduces. It reduces that impact and everything is everything is recorded in Newtons and that's, you know, physics. And I give you an example of people who don't really understand some of this is that if Mike Tyson would give anybody a shot like Jake Paul, would give anybody a shot like Jake Paul, a real fight. A Mike Tyson punch could be upwards to 5,000 newtons, and if you're talking 6, 7, or 8,000 newtons, we're talking about pretty much almost decapitating a human, and at that point we're not worrying about protecting any teeth or brain if we're going to decapitate a human.
Speaker 2:So yeah, 5,000 newtons is pretty much an average hit punch, we'll say, from Mike Tyson. So we're proud to say we've done a lot of testing, we've stuck a lot of time and resources and capital in these so that we can really back up what we're producing Bruce, Cool.
Speaker 1:And so when you say you're stronger than the next near, so tell us how, like you said Newtons, Is Newtons transferable to PSI or G-Force or anything like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we have to remember that these other mouthguards that are on the market, they have no data or no testing to back up any of their claims we talked about. They make the best pizza because they say so. And no mouth guard will say, no mouth guard company will say well, you know, our mouth guard will last three, four, five, seven, eight, nine months. No one will say that they already know. After a period of, say, four or five weeks, or even less, many athletes can tell you. The mouth guards will slowly become loose, automatically. They lose their form. Right, they'll fit like socks on a rooster. We'll say that, right. And that's why the problem is the major. The major, the major complaints of, of of athletes at any level, at any sport, is, let's face it, I I understand why they don't want to wear it. We see athletes on TV all the time not wearing mouthguards right, whether it's hanging on from their helmets, right, or they're just not wearing them right. The problem is, is that mouthguards actually the average mouthguard restrict oxygen intake, right? That's a major problem. Our patented design allows oxygen intake and what is the big deal about that? It increases one's performance and endurance. That is a major game changer In MMA, fighting and boxing or what have you. That is, when it comes down to who has more gas left in the tank. That becomes a factor. That is a game changer and, as I mentioned, we call it the X factor.
Speaker 2:And also another negative of most mouthguards is they're too bulky. Right, they can't talk with it. Right, let's face it, most sports are team-oriented sports. Communication is a huge key. Right, with our mouthguard, you can stick it in and still call an audible at the line of scrimmage. No more taking it in and out, in and out, sticking it on the helmet, forgetting to put it in, or or or or, finagling it around at the line of scrimmage, taking up seconds, as we've seen, some plays, some quarterbacks not putting it in correctly at times. The clock is still moving that those days are over. You put it, bruce, and you forget about it.
Speaker 2:You leave it in Able to communicate, able to breathe, and also it gives the athlete a peace of mind that they don't have to play with trying to keep it in, fighting it in place to hold it right. They put it in and concentrate on what is important right in front of them.
Speaker 1:And that's focusing on their game. Well, I know my son was not a big fan of mouthguards in wrestling and or football, so we have a lot of parents listening to this podcast. So you know, besides the advantages of your mouthguard, what is it? You know, and I know, some of the advantages of your mouthguard we're going to talk about in a second. So why should your child wear a mouth guard? I mean, you know, and so parents can, you know, enforce kind of like this Obviously there's benefits to wearing a mouth guard, but to the athletes like, nah, I'm not wearing that right, but you know, sometimes we should be a little bit, you know, encouraging, or just, you know, telling our child you're wearing a goddamn mouth guard. So what are the risks to the child for not wearing the mouth guard?
Speaker 2:so our parents can understand the importance of having Well, I'm going to tell you, first of all, it's in high school and middle school and so on. It's, you know, it's in the rules they have to wear the mouth guard. Okay, they have to wear the mouth guard. A penalty will be called. If they don't have it, they don't bring it, they're not getting on the field. I like those. I like that because you're, you're, you're, you know you're, you're setting it up that look, you know, accidents happen to anyone, regardless, regardless, pro college, high school accidents will happen, right, and the best thing is to, you know, put your armor on right.
Speaker 2:Concussions, you know, concussions, they will not sidestep any athlete. Tbis, traumatic brain injuries these are all things that we're trying to reduce. Right, there is no mouth guard in the world that will eliminate concussions, but if we can, if we can come up with a mouth guard that we really, really think we've made, we've made a precedence that this mouth guard can reduce, based on data and science, that is. That is a huge statement to make, and the whole concept is we're trying to focus on reducing oral trauma. Right, having one tooth chipped, losing one tooth, the trauma that actually goes through Mom and dad insurance, what have you having to go through bone graphing, getting an implant, internal appliances, on and on and on. It becomes a situation that they're going to have to deal with that pretty much their whole life. And we're talking thousands, thousands of dollars for that. We're trying to reduce that.
Speaker 2:And we talked about what are your teeth worth? What's somebody's brain worth? When you get one concussion, you're more susceptible to getting a second one, a third one, a third one, absolutely the fourth one. I mean some of us have seen that movie that was out a few years ago with Will Smith called Concussions with some of the major players, from Junior Seau right to many, many athletes, mike Webster, right from the Steelers who played center I mean we can mention a few athletes. What happened to them? They took their lives. It's a huge negative right. We don't want to have more athletes coming out like Brett Favre did to Capitol Hill talking about his Parkinson's disease. That could contribute to all the hits that he took. He took a beating on the field.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about that. So when you say, you know, with concussions and TBIs you reduce the force, now we know that obviously we're talking about a hit that takes place in the oral area, because otherwise you're not going to impact any hit to the head.
Speaker 2:Well, we're talking. Yeah, bruce. I do want to mention one thing. A lot of people focus only from here up. Okay, we're focusing from the mandibular area.
Speaker 1:So what is the mechanism by which your device reduces that concussion? Is it purely the compression of the force between the carbon fiber and the outside material, or what is the mechanisms that allow your device to reduce the concussive blow, and by what percentage does it reduce it?
Speaker 2:Well, before we put a number on that, bruce, let's talk about first how everything is connected here, right? And so let's talk about lacrosse, let's talk about field hockey, let's talk about ice hockey and so on.
Speaker 2:High sticks very common, right, and so the manipular is the only thing that actually moves in your mouth right and everything is connected right to the condylus right. A lot of people have TMJ problems right, they have pain right here. This is all connected. It's a major hinge. It's a major hinge that everything is connected right. Slapping, having the mandible slam against your maxilla right, have the upper hit against that, have the lower hit the upper that hard, that sends that wave, that wave, that shock, up into the brain. And you know, as you saw perhaps in that movie, you know Will Smith took a lunch bag right and filled it with fruit and water and he shook that bag. That, basically, was trying to show you when you receive a TBI, a concussion, your brain is getting shocked and everything is scrambled.
Speaker 2:And the days, bruce, you know the days of getting hit on the field and popping back up and the coaches on the sideline how many fingers do you see? Right, right, okay, you're good, you're going back in a minute later or the second half. Those days are over. Look what happened to tua as just one example, to a shoot up from the miami dolphins quarterback to a should have never been able to play so many games that quickly. He wasn't ready. This is where we come in having the sensors that we're dropping in in real time showing. Not only is Tua not coming back a week later, tua is not coming back for the next 11 games.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's talk about that. So we discussed that. The mechanism, how you protect the athlete, is that you know if the force is in the mandibular area, you can reduce the amount of force that is reaching the brain, because you could press in the oral area. You could press the amount of shock. You absorb a lot of it, so less reaches.
Speaker 1:Now we all know that the real challenge in this, in all sports, is subconcussive trauma, the way the brain shakes, and we know that there's not anything in the world that can prevent the brain from shaking in the head. So, when we're talking, blows upon blows upon blows, which is why we are advocating forcefully for the elimination of concussive contact in children, because of the developing brains and the issues that happen to a developing brain as they're exposed to concussive, uh, concussive trauma. And so your device, which it sounds, it sounds amazing from the area, from the area. Um, you know, you said you have the data and science, uh, that support that I there was no studies on your website, but I was. You know, I'm very interested in the amount of reduction in that device, is it? It was you? It was compared to other mouth guards or those studies with your device well, we could, we could send that to you.
Speaker 2:We have it in our in uh investment deck. We have, we have it in several places. I'm not quite sure what you saw, but nevertheless it does show. You know, not only do we test our product, we test it against other major manufacturers and they failed miserably. They failed miserably. Most of these mouthguards have one layer, maybe two, right, that's not even a mouth guard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean in a short period. The most important thing is that these mouth guards are ill-fitting in a short period of time. And when a mouth guard is ill-fitting that right, there is already a problem, because if a mouth guard does not fit right, it can't protect right. And with our 3D printing our mouth guards are a precision fit. They snap into place right and it's going to be a very tight fit. It gives the athletes confidence to wear it as they perform, knowing they can dish out a hit and take a hit without this mouth guard being dislodged.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about the hits. What's your position on children playing contact sports?
Speaker 2:Well, I think there should be an age. I know they're changing rules all the time in sports. You've seen that. I know that parents are concerned about contact sports and I wouldn't be surprised because of all the problems. I mean you see some young kids already getting concussions already. You know, under 12 years old that's a major problem. I mean that opens a door. Then you know what happens at 15, 16, 17, um. But we have to, we have to put our best foot forward. We have to put our best foot forward. I know, I know they're making some strides on changing helmets and the silliest thing I saw the other day I think I saw some of these new helmets being worn in the nfl right, you've seen them as well and the athletes not wearing a mouth guard.
Speaker 2:I mean yeah, get the yeah yeah, and there's actually a lot of talk. Yeah, and actually I was thinking to myself one hit yeah.
Speaker 1:So there's actually a lot of talk that the current helmet design is actually the worst at all because of the transmission of force from the mandibular area because it's all locked in.
Speaker 1:It's all locked in and that really causes it like, and so they're looking at helmets now that are full, they come around and if you, you know that protection takes the, you know, because the compression of the jaw to your point, right, if that compression is not controlled it's also a significant cost of concussions on hits because the way that that jaw force is transmitted to the brain, so you know. So for your device to reduce some of that concussive blow, there is a point saying that, and I mean there's actually a good point for wearing anything that can help reduce any point of concussion, especially when the child is playing concussive sports or at the proper level. But to your point, it doesn't matter what you're doing, cheerleading these girls take, you know, hits, you know lacrosse, soccer, everybody's out there and you can't stop the accident from happening, but you know it would be. Do you sell, you know, obviously, with you know children playing sports and needing this protection because you get a concussion in any sport, do you sell children, these devices as well?
Speaker 2:Well, right now we're working on that, bruce Right now, the different versions that we have, that we can, we can say for basically 12 years and up, for the reason being a lot of these young children have deciduous teeth, in other words, baby teeth right, and they're losing them, and so on. Yeah, so basically from 12 and up, we could see these athletes wearing them. And also, I'd like to go back to what you were asking a minute ago who's wearing these mouth guards? We have many MMA fighters wearing these coast to coast. We have a lot of major gold medal winners from the US ski team, darren Routes. Oh, they need these. Darren Routes is the most prestigious male racer from the United States, most prestigious male racer from the United States. He's won so many gold medals all around the world skiing and he's wearing our mouth guard. He also has segued his career in making movies Warren Miller movies.
Speaker 1:I love my Warren Miller movies. Used to catch them every year in Colorado, man. Yeah, love them, darren.
Speaker 2:Rouse is a major athlete. He's one of these guys you see in these movies where you know they're up about 17,000 feet somewhere in Alaska and he's jumping out of a helicopter, you know, going off a cliff.
Speaker 1:So Darren Rouse is wearing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just finished a mouth guard with Johnny Mosley. Johnny Mosley is another gold medal US skier that is wearing it. Both these athletes, they come out of Squaw Valley or Palisades as they call it now.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, that's where they practice.
Speaker 2:In Lake Tahoe. They're both ambassadors to the resort at Squaw Valley and Palisades. So we have many football players, a few Buckeyes, wearing it right now and our push is for the entire team to wear it because we want to make a force not just in our backyard but coast to coast in many high schools and college level players.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about these AI sensors, because I think right now, this could be the greatest innovation right now in America for parents. Right now, you cannot buy a device that can tell a parent that their child incurred a subconcussive hit and to what magnitude or concussive blow. Doesn't matter that their head has taken trauma. And parents want to know, and they deserve to know. If my child is playing sports and they get harmed, it's not about liability or anything. They just want to know if they can make a decision to take care of their child. Have they suffered a concussive hit or how many sub-concussive hits have they had? You know, do we need to go see a concussive specialist? Yada, yada, your device right now. If need to go see a concussive specialist, yada, yada, your device right now if I read it right, is getting ready to is going to allow parents insight into that type of, those types of metrics and that type of information, which is astounding.
Speaker 1:So where are you at with this product and when do you think that you are going to release it and tell us all about it? This is exactly we've heard of sensors in rugby, in world rugby right now. I think they're wearing it, but only the team gets the data, not the athletes. And I'm a rugby player, I couldn't even know. I wouldn't even know what subcustum trauma is right. So for you, you are educating the populace with this device. So what's the plans? Tell us all about this. Is this exciting?
Speaker 2:This is where technology can really impact the issue of repetitive ed impacts for all of us. You're absolutely right. This is a game changer. We're very fortunate for the team that we have and, thanks to Dr Haseem Roy and his team, they're coming up. They have the sensor for the mouth guard. Sensors have been around for a bit now. The NFL has been toying with that. The problem is they have nothing compared to what we're going to be doing and hopefully we're going to have that coming out this year. We're going to have several different types, different versions, and I'll touch base on that right now. Bruce, in real time. In real time, parents, coaches, trainers will have the ability. If somebody takes a major hit on the ice on the football field, the parents and all of us will know where we stand with that, what kind of hit that was. Is that a hit that's going to take Johnny or Susie out for the next six months, or?
Speaker 1:should it take them out? Right yeah.
Speaker 2:We'll be able to tell no more. How many fingers do we see? How many fingers do you see, right, yeah, those days are over. We'll be able to see, right then and there, what that looks like. We'll also be able to see, when Mike Tyson hits his next opponent, as an example, what that looks like. So imagine this Bruce you're watching a big time fight, you're watching some MMA fight, ufc fight, right From Las Vegas or Dubai, and you'll see a fighter take a hit right there. The audience, the pay-per-view crowd, will actually be able to see. You'll have a meter. We'll be able to see what that looks like and what just happened, what transpired from that hit, whether it's an elbow, a fist, a knee, what have you right We'll be able to dive right in and see that, and so that is amazing. That is something we're very excited about.
Speaker 1:It is amazing.
Speaker 2:We're working with that right now and we're eager to come out and have that for everybody, parents included.
Speaker 1:How are you going to so? And that is important, sir you could change the game with this. So do you know what kind of threshold you're going to be using for the for you know, for the for the sensor to go off, how are you going to display this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's talk about the sensors in general. So obviously we're talking about sensors, you know, for for, for combat sports, right, football, basketball, you know any of the sports like that. We'll be able to put those mouth guards in place and in real time see that. But some of these sensors right Now you talk about some of the trainers at colleges and football. They'll say, well, we already have something right. They have this device, a vest, that that some of these athletes are wearing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Riddell has the helmet, the lining jacket.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they measure the temperature, the oxygen intake and so on. They're able to measure all of that. Or some people have these fancy smartwatches, right, when they're jogging, it shows them They've got a smart ring. Now, yeah, I was going to mention that. And the unfortunate part, bruce, all these items are mentioning are completely unreliable, and I'm going to tell you why, bruce and it's not me saying that this comes from a major you know, uh, neurologist, it's the problem with those devices that people are buying. Neurologist, it's the problem with those devices that people are buying.
Speaker 2:They have the information, the data has to go through the human skin, the epidermis, right? And the problem is that is where the data gets skewed, right, because it has to go through the skin. The most accurate way to retrieve that data, bruce, is through the oral cavity, right here in your mouth, and so that's where the sensors are going to be in. Each sensor has a different application. We're talking only about one, one sensor right now. Other sensors that we'll be working on, well, we'll basically measure the pH level of a human. We'll also be able to monitor, you know, the cholesterol, right? We talk about high blood pressure, all these things, you know. We're talking about wellness. Now right, All these things will have a different application, and all these other ones we talked about are giving false data false data.
Speaker 1:Let's get back to the subconcussive trauma here, because this is key. So will you tell parents, like on your screen? So a lot of these sensors are out there, like the helmet sensors for Riddell. Well, when the hit goes off, the coach gets it on the sideline right. Number one that data is not allowed to be shared with the parent. Number two there is no explanation of the magnitude of that hit. So Riddell says we set this at an industry accepted level, but they won't tell you how many Gs it is. Is it 25 Gs? The NFL says 95 Gs is a concussive hit. Most doctors say it's around 30 to 25. So big disparity there. But will you? There's your sensor right now, as you plan it, how will it display the gravity of the hit? What is the measurements that are going to be used right now? Or what do?
Speaker 2:you plan on. Right now we're working on that and I can't speak directly of that. Okay, but we're going to be using color codes for that, whether it be red, and all the parents, trainers and coaches and players they'll be able to look at the color. What that then would transpire. Okay, all right, and so right now we're working on that and we will definitely get back with you on that information as it comes out Would love to, and so when do you think you're going to have this device on the market, sir?
Speaker 2:We're looking at 24. I'm sorry 25 to be the year of that happening at this particular point. Prototypes we're working on as we speak, and so we're looking and working on that, you know pretty hard right now.
Speaker 1:I'll be one of your testers. You give me one of those.
Speaker 1:I'll have Mike Tyson punch me in the head and I want to see where that thing goes, because this I'll tell you what, doc, I mean you're going to be in for a little bit of pushback that the parents have this access to the information.
Speaker 1:Expect that, Okay, but do not give up on that. These parents right now have no way to measure what's happening to their child and if you stay true to the intent of this device, you will be the first application that a parent can monitor a child when they're playing soccer tiddlywinks, you know, basketball tag jumping out of trees, it doesn't matter. We now know right now, rhi is the largest preventable cause of mental illness in this country and we have to track this. We need to know when Johnny or Susie has been harmed, when they hit that red, even when they hit that yellow. So I think you are on a magnificent mission right now to shine a light on the issue of subcustive trauma with your devices, and I would back you 100% with your mission to take to be able to at least allow the parents to understand what's going on with their children, because nobody else is doing that right now.
Speaker 2:I'm going to tell you something, bruce. Our mission, our mission statement is very clear. Our number one priority is, is the athlete. And if we can, if we can have these athletes, you know, go out there, have the parents, know that their, that their, their, their young athletes are safer wearing an appliance that only can protect their dentition right, their teeth Right and you know, and at the same time reduce the chances of TBIs, traumatic brain injuries.
Speaker 1:I mean that's, I would say, reduce the amount of pressure that causes a TBI. But you know it's. Yeah, I think that would be a fair statement and then also transmit this critical data to the parent or the sideline, right? I mean the coaches need to know too. Yeah, yeah. I mean we don't, what a mission.
Speaker 2:We don't want. We don't want too many to us walking around, that we don't want any to us.
Speaker 1:Right, and you're to your point and a lot of even I. All right, so let me ask you a question. When two of God hit I think it was, you know he hit his head on the back Okay, that your device would still be able to, you know, measure the impact? Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:That could mitigate that, that impact, that, that that he unfortunately had. But you know we're talking about one particular person too. I mean, what about all? What about all the? What about all the athletes that we don't that took a hit, we're not even talking about? They got a major headache.
Speaker 1:It happens to every. I mean, and that's what we have parents understand that as soon as your kid enters contact sports, they are going to have subcursive trauma. That's it. You cannot get away with it. If the head moves, the brain moves, and if you allow it to move too much, you're going to change the brain in ways that are not positive for the mental health and brain health of that child. That is why preventive or diagnostic technologies like yours, right, that can alert a parent to these issues, are going to be so. You are the future, doc. You are the future. I mean.
Speaker 1:This is where we need to leverage technology to protect our kids and to make sports safer, not to ban the sports, not to, you know, piss the coaches off because the parents on the sideline go hey, man, my kid needs to come out. That's what should be our priority anyways. Is that athlete you just said it that child, their brain, is the priority, not winning these games. All right, I mean, it's just. You know we can no longer go down this path of allowing children to play sports. Oh, in the name of winning, we're going to keep Tommy out there, and I know from this app that I got from my helmet manufacturer. He's already taken a bunch of hits, but you know he's still functional, right? He's still not, you know, stumbling around or falling down. We've got to win this game. That is the most crappy approach to coaching in this world right now when it comes to our children, and we have to change that, and your technology can do it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, go ahead. We have to protect the athlete. You know whether it's the Tuas, you know the Mike Websters out there that had situations, if we would reach them at an earlier state.
Speaker 1:Right, and we're the guys that's going to stop them from having so much exposure. And then, when they are playing those contact sports preferably 18, but maybe in high school that's the compromise and there's no contact practices during the week they're going to be wearing your device because that coach is going to know and we're behind you 100% on this one, doc. I mean this is great.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that, Bruce. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:It's going to be amazing. So tell our audience how to find you. Where do they go to the website? I would definitely post your research papers on there. If you're going to claim research, they should be able to see it, but I think your investor deck's on there too. Yeah, but tell our audience where to go.
Speaker 2:Doc. It's real simple, bruce. They can go to exportguardscom to check us out the website. You'll see athletes, you'll see testimonials, you'll see all that on there. It talks about our mission statement, it talks about our involvement with community and I'd like to touch base on this real quick that export mouthguards. You know we would like to work with donors and nonprofit organizations to create a winning strategy, because we believe all athletes, bruce, need protection, regardless of their demographics, and we can make that difference today and for tomorrow.
Speaker 1:All about it, sir, and that's a great closing point. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Cannot thank you. Great mission, doc. I'm on that AI technology. I'm going to follow you every week. Folks. Another great edition of our podcast, broken Brains. Cannot thank you enough for coming on.
Speaker 1:Remember, go to the websitempfactcom. Get our free copy of this book so that you can be informed the only copy, the only book out there endorsed by all the senior ct neurologists in this country for you to read, get informed. Get our app on google smart uh, head smart at the head smart app on google. We've got the town hall in March for veterans and RBE. We're going to be doing seminars for NFL players and we've got our conference coming up on repetitive brain trauma in September here in Tampa and hopefully we'll have Mr Sattel Sig on there talking about this new dynamic innovation where parents can actually measure what's going on with their kids for the first time in history of sports. Thank you so much for listening. God bless you, sig. Thank you so much for coming on board and God bless you and your mission. And thank you folks, take care you.