Team

A note from the President.

Two years in, we realized we were failing the practices we set out to help — so we rebuilt OraPath around what a clinical team actually needs.

I want to tell you how OraPath came to operate the way it does, because how we got here says a lot about what working with us will feel like.

When we started OraPath, we looked closely at how salivary diagnostics were already being presented to dental practices. The prevailing model was simple: report quantitative or semi-quantitative results for each organism, deliver the report, and let dentists and hygienists figure out what it all meant.

So we followed that model.

For the first two years, that is how we operated. We gave clinicians organism-level results and assumed the rest would take care of itself.

It took me two years to recognize the failure was ours.

That realization came through conversations with Sara Spurlock and Jen Jenkins at Dental Design Studio, who were using salivary diagnostics with more clinical sophistication than I had seen anywhere. We had been handing clinicians a test and expecting them to figure out the rest: interpretation, clinical decisions, patient conversations, and workflow.

But dentistry has not traditionally been built around diagnostic test results. We were asking practices to absorb a new category of evidence without the systems, support, or shared training to use it well.

Most reasonably declined.

That was our failure. Not theirs.

That changes today.

Everything on this site — every score, every pattern, every component of the clinical decision support — exists because it is what a clinical team actually needs to use salivary diagnostics in routine practice.

Sara and Jen are the clinical conscience of OraPath. Julie Cox leads provider education. Dr. Tom Nabors, our scientific advisor, built the first commercial oral DNA-PCR lab in 2003. Jeff McCormack, our Laboratory Director, holds the highest CLIA personnel qualification level and oversees the validation and quality systems that make every result something a clinician can rely on.

A few things about how we work: kits ship free, and you pay only when you submit a specimen. We do not gate access to our team. We do not use aggressive sales tactics, because aggressive sales tactics attract the wrong customers. The practices that thrive with OraPath are the ones that treat oral health as a serious clinical question.

If you want to talk through whether OraPath fits what you are trying to do clinically, Julie or I will be on the other end of an actual conversation.

Not a script.

— Brandon Neary, President, OraPath

Team bios

The people behind the operation.

Brandon Neary

President

Brandon leads OraPath. Twenty-five years in IVD diagnostics, CLIA Technical Supervisor, and the operational anchor of the OraPath team. Personally takes conversations with practices considering molecular diagnostics for the first time.

Founder of OraPath

Drs. Sara Spurlock and Jennifer Jenkins

Clinical Partners, Dental Design Studio

Sara and Jen are Kois-trained practitioners at Dental Design Studio in Norman, Oklahoma. Eight years of sustained molecular salivary diagnostics integration across the full adult patient population. Originating clinical partners behind OraPath's methodology — they educated themselves and built the interpretive and patient-communication frameworks their practice needed, years before OraPath's system existed.

The clinical conscience of OraPath

Julie Cox, BSDH/RDH/EFDA

Director of Provider Education

Julie runs provider education at OraPath. A decade of clinical education in molecular oral diagnostics, with deep expertise in the chairside workflow, patient communication, and team training that turn a molecular result into clinical commitment. Julie takes conversations with clinical teams integrating salivary diagnostics for the first time.

Provider education lead

Dr. Tom Nabors

Scientific Advisor

Tom founded the first commercial oral DNA-PCR laboratory in 2003. Joined OraPath as scientific advisor to be part of doing this category right — with the lab infrastructure and clinical posture the first generation of oral diagnostics didn't have.

Oral DNA-PCR pioneer

Jeff McCormack, PhD, HCLD (ABB)

Laboratory Director

Jeff is OraPath's Laboratory Director, holding the highest CLIA personnel qualification level (HCLD/ABB — Doctorate plus High Complexity Laboratory Director certification through the American Board of Bioanalysis). Responsible for the validation work behind every OraPath test, the quality systems that the CLIA certification and COLA accreditation require, and the day-to-day operational discipline of the laboratory.

Highest CLIA qualification

Talk to our team

Run in our own lab

Every test runs in our own CLIA- and COLA-accredited lab in Norman, Oklahoma.

Results in 2 business days from receipt

From the moment your sample arrives, posted straight to your OraPath account.

Free shipping, both ways

Kits ship free with a prepaid return envelope included — the same for individuals and practices.

Grounded in the literature

Every score traces back to the published research behind it.