An engineer with close ties to Bermuda believes he has an opportunity that investors can really sink their teeth into.

Timothy Stewart claimed he could create several local millionaires through his reinvention of the simple toothbrush.

Set to hit hospitals, rest homes and other medical institutions in the US for clinical trials next April, the Agatha Oral Hygiene System was created by Mr.

Stewart over 12 years ago.

But when the Agatha appears on the market it will be the most advanced toothbrush and the only manual brushing device with approval from the American Food and Drug Administration.

Without any marketing, the inventor says he already has more than 1,000 orders from medical institutions. King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is among those who have expressed interest in the invention.

Glenda Daniels, head nurse in the intensive care unit of KEMH, said the Agatha would be very useful in her department and added the extended care unit might want a few of the machines also.

Mr. Stewart has poured all his energy in the past 12 years into his new company, Midian.

Midian will sell and market Agatha to the world market.

"The company is worth $55 million,'' he said. "The patents alone are worth $35 million.'' And Mr. Stewart, with the help of his family and some friends, has already invested $6.5 million in development of the device and in securing the worldwide patent for it.

He said the Agatha is a cut above any other toothbrush on the market because it allows for water and other debris to be vacuumed from the mouth while brushing.

"This brush has huge implications in the medical field,'' he said. "When the first doctor saw it he recommended that I patent it right away and told me that the medical world was in desperate need of it.'' In fact the way in which he came to invent the brush has led Mr. Stewart to believe that it was his divine calling.

"I have named it after my mother who had suffered a stroke,'' he said.

"After two days in the hospital when I went to give her a kiss, I noticed her mouth smelled awful.

"I called the nurses and asked them to brush her teeth and they told me they had just done it,'' he continued. "A two-hour argument ensued after which they did it again. But when I saw them do it I had to apologise.'' Mr. Stewart said his mother's doctor then explained to him that the sponge swab which was used to wipe out his mother's mouth, was the standard hospital procedure for oral hygiene.

"I sat in his office and as he explained the problems to me I was already creating the solution in my mind,'' he said.

"After that meeting I went out and bought a toothbrush. When I got home I drilled a hole behind the bristles and attached tubing,'' he said. Mr. Stewart tried out his new invention on his mother when she came home from the hospital, but discovered a shortcoming.

"I discovered mom could not spit the water out,'' he said, "so I devised a method of suction at the base of the brush and this worked well.'' Mr. Stewart said he used the machine daily to clean his mother's teeth with no thought of its usefulness to anyone else.

"One day her doctor visited while I was brushing her teeth and he asked me where I had found the machine. I told him that I made it,'' he said. "He recommended that I patent it right away and told me that the medical world desperately needed it.

"I was so surprised,'' Mr. Stewart continued, "It's so simple I thought someone must have done this before, but I hired a patent lawyer to conduct a search and no one had.'' Mr. Stewart also took his idea to a pharmaceutical company who offered him in excess of $20 million to buy the patent.

"I was so surprised,'' he recalled, "I did not know it was worth so much.'' But he didn't sell the idea and decided instead to set up a private company.

"My mom and dad and I saw this as a means by which we could help our people,'' he said, "my friends, relatives and their friends and relatives because we now see this as a worldwide product''.

About $200,000 of the $960,000 outside financing Mr. Stewart has secured for the new venture, came from Bermuda residents, and with a further $3.5 million still left to raise, there is still an opportunity for locals to get on board.

Selling his business and home both in England, in order to finance the project Mr. Stewart said he hopes to be able to keep the company privately held.

"I think the Lord gave me the wisdom to do this,'' he said, "I really believe that. I cannot begin to tell you the number of people who have offered to buy the company. But just look at the name, my mother's name was Agatha and this has turned out to also be the acronym, Antiseptic Gum and Tooth Hygiene Apparatus.'' Plans of the company are for Agatha to go into mass production to be ready for the marketplace in February 2002.