Revolutionizing the Orthodontic Industry
Emerging from the bustling startup scene in the Boston area, LightForce Orthodontics is delivering the first significant advancement in bracket-based treatment in the past 50 years.
Our Story
Conceptualized during the Boston blizzard of 2015, LightForce Orthodontics was created to explore the idea that it would be possible to give the orthodontist a truly individualized approach to bracket-based orthodontic treatment.
Working in the shadow of the famed Green Monster in Boston, MA, the company was founded by Dr. Alfred Griffin III, who hypothesized that 3D printing technology and advanced digital treatment planning capabilities could be united to create a 100% customized prescription for each patient.
After exhaustive 3 years of research and development, Dr. Griffin patented a system for 3D printing custom-designed brackets based on the anatomy and tooth morphology of each patient. The LightForce technology uses material virtually identical to familiar injection modeled ceramic brackets, but specially formulated for 3D printing. The system provides the precision and strength required for orthodontic appliances, while offering future development pathways for aesthetic options.
Dr. Griffin then added Dr. Lou Shuman – a key member of the Invisalign® executive team during its early hyper growth, a dental industry key opinion leader, and a successful entrepreneur/CEO – to the LightForce team. From there, the LightForce roster grew with the addition of key biomechanical engineers, hardware engineers and software developers with a history of building advanced dental systems.
Today LightForce is headquartered in the Cambridge area of Boston and continues to add top notch engineering talent. The company received FDA clearance in 2019 and the complete system was officially launched at the 2019 AAO Annual Session in Los Angeles CA.
Our Team
Dr. Alfred Griffin III, DMD, PhD, MMSc
CEO & Co-founder | Harvard-trained Orthodontist from a family of orthodontists and dentists
Dr. Griffin received his BS in Biochemistry from the University of Virginia, then completed a DMD and PhD at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2014, while lecturing internationally in craniofacial biology. Dr. Griffin finished a Masters of Medical Research and Certificate in Orthodontics from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) in 2017, where he currently serves as faculty, and is ABO certified. Dr. Griffin founded LightForce Orthodontics in 2015.
Dr. Lou Shuman, DMD, CAGS
Co-founder | Orthodontist, Former VP Clinical Education and Strategic Relations - Align Technology
Dr. Shuman is an Orthodontist and received his DMD degree and his Certificate in Advanced Graduate Studies in Orthodontics from the Henry M. Goldman Boston University School of Dental Medicine. Before joining the industry, he owned a 10-doctor private group practice. Dr. Shuman was instrumental in driving early growth for Align as their VP of Strategic Relations where he led clinical education and university integration. He is also the founder and CEO of Cellerant Consulting Group, dentistry’s leading corporate incubator and accelerator.
Amos Benninga
VP of Engineering | Grew and led 80 engineer team at GrabCAD > Stratasys as VP Engineering
Early engineer at BladeLogic from series A through IPO and a later acquisition for $800M by BMC. Led the core team which scaled an enterprise product from supporting a few hundred servers, to over a hundred thousand servers at companies such as Bank of America. Rebuilt and grew the engineering team at GrabCAD post series A/B, through the $100M acquisition by Stratasys. Amos then took on the role of global VP of software. At Stratasys, he led the work to recreate the software stack, enable their cloud strategy and develop advanced software applications to unlock printer capabilities.
Alex Yamarkovich
Director of 3D Engineering | Former Chief Software Architect - Dentsply/Sirona
Received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Math. 30+ years of experience in 3D software for Dental, Medical Imaging, and CAD applications. Started in 2002 at an early stage at Atlantis Components - maker of custom implantable restorations (acquired by Dentsply). Created software for the design of custom dental parts and design automation. Reduced the design time from 2 hours to 4 minutes per case. In 2019, Atlantis was manufacturing 1,500 custom implant-based restorations per day. Led 3D software development at Dentsply/Sirona and other high-tech companies. Developed Slicer 3D program used in brain surgery planning.
Kurt Frazier
VP of Sales | Scaled over 800 reps at Align Technology
Built Align’s Sales Enablement department from ground up into 23 member unit responsible for all sales training enablement strategies of a 700+ member sales team globally. Co-Developed Align’s Sales Development Program to hire, train, create a 50+ personnel pipeline of talent. Built and managed Align Technology’s Insight Selling sales process. Core member of iTero (formerly Cadent) acquisition and integration team responsible for building strategy and execution of capital equipment (iTero) sales team and merchandise (Invisalign) sales teams. Served on dozens of sales and marketing leadership teams resulting in the launch of dozens of new internal and commercially available products and solutions: Most Notably: iTero, Invisalign Express, Teen, Assist, and Vivera.
Matt Handy
VP of Marketing | Grew PUMA Golf from $0 to $125MM, selling to SMBs
Moonlighted as a professional soccer player for the New England Revolution. Launched PUMA Golf in North America as the founding marketing lead growing business to $125M and signing Rickie Fowler. Helped grow social advertising agency, Brand Networks to a leading certified API partner on Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Most recently lead marketing at CozyKin, which was the Airbnb for daycares, where he 5x qualified leads and doubled sales over 12 months. CozyKin was acquired by HigherGround.
Kelsey Fafara
Director of Hardware Engineering
Kelsey Fafara is the Director of Hardware Engineering at LightForce Orthodontics. She studied Biomedical/Medical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. She is a medical device research and development engineer and an expert in the field of design for ceramic 3D printing. Prior to joining LightForce, Kelsey worked at Harvard’s Wyss Institute and brought research-based technologies to commercialization through licensing to several startups and a Fortune 100 company.
Craig Sidorchuk
Director of Software Engineering
Craig Sidorchuk is the Director of Software Engineering at LightForce Orthodontics. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is a full stack software engineer with expertise developing SASS software solutions to support CAD/CAM and 3D printing applications requiring cloud connectivity. Prior to joining LightForce, Craig led software development efforts within successful tech companies including BMC Software, GrabCAD, and Stratasys.
Careers at LightForce
LightForce Orthodontics hires committed self-motivated associates and then gives them the freedom and flexibility to do great work. We are both results and mission driven seeking to grow a fantastic tech company, to advance the orthodontic profession, and to provide positive health benefits to patients.
LightForce is a progressive workplace offering unlimited vacation, flexible working arrangements, full health benefits, and a 401K plan. In 2019 we were recognized as one of Boston’s Coolest Companies by Bostinno.
If joining a talented team that’s leveraging the latest tech to make the world smile sounds like you please send your resume to careers@lightforceortho.com.
