There is no pain equal in intensity to tooth pain. Every 1 in 4 American citizens has experienced the sorrow of root canal treatments.

In a time when technology and science are at their peak, outdated dental treatments are no longer applicable to many patients’ situations. Many regular Joes and Janes are impatiently awaiting a breakthrough in endodontics.

Olav Bergheim, a good-hearted and forward-oriented man dedicated his life to bringing modern dental technology closer to patients. Olav used his keen eye for business to formulate special digital offices for dentists all around California.

With Sonendo, Olav introduced the Gentle Way System – a revolutionary way of treating root canal issues. The system uses vertical flow, procedure fluids, and broad acoustic energies to treat and heal infected root canals.

If you ache to know more about how Olav introduced a whole new method to treating teeth, continue reading the inspirational story of Sonendo.

Bright Beginnings

Olav Bergheim was born in Oslo, Norway in the early 1980s. As a child growing up in Norway, Olav showed the true colors of a hidden genius. From a very young age, Olav had been thought to be very charismatic and caring.

Olav, unlike many boys his age, was unselfish and tried to help out as much as he could. Young Olav had a certain zest for life that no member of the family or friend could match. Unsurprisingly, Olav excelled at school as well, often completing his tasks ahead of time, compared to the rest of the class.

When asked what he would like to be when he grew up, Olav’s answer would always revolve around helping people. Olav’s primary goals were medicine or pharmacy. But, being clever came with its own issues. This means that Olav bounced from goal to goal until he reached his college years.

Besides being a very thoughtful individual, Olav possessed some leadership skills as well. Olav was a communicative young adult, who could hypnotize anyone to his wits. These hidden talents will come in handy in the following years.

After high school, Olav did not waste any time and enrolled at the University of Olso to study pharmacy. This was Olav’s way of keeping true to his benevolent character via his career choice.

Rush Hour

It seemed like Olav Bergheim swapped through college in a jiffy. After scoring a high-deserving Master’s degree in Pharmacy, Olav did not rest easy. His thirst for knowledge had not yet been quenched and he sought new challenges to further build his resume.

Olav believed that building a strong background is crucial if he wanted to achieve a higher goal. The best way to shed light on his idea is through business. Thankfully, Olav had natural-born instincts, when it comes to leadership.

Young Olav was open-minded by nature, so when he thought about where his future career spot should be, he pictured the USA. While on American soil, Olav entered the executive program at Darden School of Business at Virginia University.

Step by Step

Once Olav completed his executive program in Virginia, he felt confident enough to stand among the beasts of the business. With that in mind, in the spring of 1998, Olav became a co-founder of Glaukos Corp. His field of choice was thriving in the health industry. Right after breaking the ice with his first corporation, Olav ventured into countless more challenges.

In the following years, Olav became a co-founder of Fjord Ventures LLC, a Laguna Hills-based company focused on life sciences. Olav had it wonderful in California, and through the years, he had mastered over every obstacle life threw at him.

In the early 2000s, Olav became a chairman at Vessix Vascular, Inc. Restless Olav also gathered experiences from Domain Associates, a company he became a partner at. While in the US, Olav spent a lot of time at Baxter Healthcare, which he would later credit to contributing to the idea of Sonendo.

Before gathering up the knowledge to begin his own startup journey, Olav even became president of Baxter Healthcare Germany.

Bumpy Roads

The years 2005 and 2006 were transitional for Olav Bergheim. He swapped positions lie socks, before finally planting down his roots with the launch of Sonendo.

Olav believed that not much attention had been paid to dentistry and dental health issues. Olav wanted to show a new way of proper disinfection, through complex systems. With this as his guide, Olav launched Sonendo in California, in 2006.

Sonendo entered the world of business as a commercial-stage medical technology enterprise with the goal of saving teeth.

Olav introduced a new smart platform that was designed to thoroughly disinfect even the tiniest of spaces between teeth, without having to remove any.

The Gentle Wave System helps dentists with root canal therapy, through fluid optimization, and broad-spectrum acoustics to cleanse the inner areas of their teeth.

With all of its perks, the system is a pretty innovative way of cleaning and desensitizing teeth, which could spare future issues with cavities.

It wasn’t long before the Gentle Wave System and Sonenedo got the green light from the FDA.

At first, not many were acquainted with the methods brought by Sonendo. The company did not enjoy wide success right after its founding, but quite later on. Sonendo’s first series A funding happened in 2010, when it raised $2.9 million from unknown investors.

Two years later, Sonendo had garnered some recognition and in a Series C funding, raising an admirable sum of $9.2 million from OrbiMed. This means that the Gentle Way System had broken into the healthcare industry.

In March of 2014, Sonenedo reached $10 million in a Debt Financing round. Olav’s Sonendo quickly bounced back in August when it raised $35 million in a Series D funding round from Meritech Capital Partners.

Not stopping there, Olav raised another $35 million in a Series E funding round from DiNova Capital in 2016, and an astounding $50 million from General Atlantic. The latter was a private equity funding round. Sonendo saw another venture funding round in 2020 when it leveled up to $85 million from EW healthcare.

New Ventures

After years of building character, platform methods, and breaking records, Olav decided that Sonendo should branch out into the initial public offering sphere. Then, in October of 2021, Sonendo acquired the portfolio of FluidFile Ltd., an Israeli-based dental establishment. This was to further the good word about Gentle Way Systems.

Most recently, on October 25th of 2021, Sonendo revealed that it will be launching its first roadshow for an initial public offering. The offering was 7,800,000 shares of Sonendo’s common stock. The reason why Olav decided to move on to IPOs was to raise as much capital from the sales of the shares and spread the knowledge of Gentle Way Systems.

Sonendo’s shares were sold from $15.00 to $17.00 and traded in the New York Stock Exchange under the code ‘’SONX’’.

Sonendo, Today

Sonendo’s headquarters are still located in Laguna Hills, California and it has up to 250 employees.

But, other than bumps on the road, Sonendo also had faced fierce competition coming from companies like ReShape Lifesciences, BioCardia, and St. Renatus, among a few others.

Over the years, Sonando had reached up to a whopping sum of $271.7 million in funding over 13 rounds. Sonenedo drew in an array of investors, including CVF Capital Partners as the most notable one. Up until now, Sonendo had treated over 600,000 patients and its renowned Gentle Way System has been used more than 700 times.

According to post-money evaluations, Sonendo ranges between $500 million and $1 billion. Also, Sonendo made it big and acquired 2 organizations.

Olav Bergheim believes that with Sonendo, the future of science and dental care will be forever co-dependent. Medicine cannot progress without science, and with more professionals accepting the Gentle Way Systems, it becomes clearer that science is always the right answer.

Thanks to Sonendo, there will be far fewer frowns, and much more confident patients showing off their picture-ready smiles!