Dentist-turned-inventor who created Chloraseptic medicine

Robert Schattner, a dentist-turned-inventor who created Chloraseptic, a popular sore-throat medication, and the medical disinfectant Sporicidin, died Jan. 29 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. He was 91.

The cause was kidney disease, said a family friend, Sidney Bresler.

In 1952, Schattner was a dentist in Queens, N.Y., when a casual encounter at a cocktail party led to his most noteworthy invention. One of the guests wondered if dentists could offer anything to relieve the residual pain from having teeth extracted.

“I began to think about it on my way home,” Schattner told The Washington Post in 2008.

A onetime chemistry major at City College of New York, Schattner began to experiment with phenol, a mild anesthetic. After months of late-night work, he found a formula that eased soreness in the mouth and the throat.

“It was trial and error,” he told The Post. “I was trying to get an antiseptic mouthwash for extractions. That was my whole thought. I was never thinking of a sore throat.”

He tested his solution, which he called Chloraseptic, in laboratories and dental offices and was encouraged by the results. With his father filling bottles in the basement, Schattner distributed free samples to dentists and later to pharmacists.

As Chloraseptic began to catch on, Schattner gave up his dental practice in the late 1950s and moved to Washington, where one of his brothers worked as a lobbyist.

He introduced D.C.-area doctors and dentists to Chloraseptic, and sales rose from $6,000 in 1957 to “substantially above $1 million” six years later, according to a 1964 Washington Post article. He set up a bottling operation and a nationwide distribution network. Chloraseptic became available in liquid, spray and lozenge form and proved effective in alleviating sore gums and sore throats.

“One survey last year, conducted by Dental Survey magazine,” The Post noted in 1964, “listed the product No. 6 among approximately 105 commercial mouthwashes which dentists recommend to their patients.”

In 1964, Schattner sold Chloraseptic to Norwich Pharmacal for $4 million and 10 percent of the product’s sales for the next 15 years. Chloraseptic is now owned by Prestige Brands.

Schattner continued to develop other germicidal products, including spray disinfectants, fabric cleaners, carpet shampoos and a solution to eliminate mold and mildew. In 1978, he patented Sporicidin, a chemical sterilizing agent that became widely used as a disinfectant in medical and dental offices. Schattner formed a company to produce and sell the product, and by 1990 he controlled as much as 25 percent of what was called the “cold sterilant” market.

The Environmental Protection Agency had approved Sporicidin for use, but the Food and Drug Administration, had not. In December 1991, federal marshals seized the company’s inventory.

“These products do not work,” FDA commissioner David A. Kessler said at the time. “Doctors, dentists and other health professionals should stop using them.”

Schattner was forced to stop manufacturing Sporicidin, but similar disinfectants on the market were not affected.

“There is no question these products are safe,” Schattner said in 1991. “I don’t understand what’s going on. For 14 years these products have been used in hospitals, and there has not been one case of infection associated with them.”

After years of legal wrangling, the FDA eventually cleared Sporicidin for use as a sterilizing agent but not before it had lost much of its share of the market. Schattner sold the business in 2008.

Isaac Schattner was born June 4, 1925, in the Bronx. His father was in the garment industry.

After graduating from City College, Schattner went to dental school at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his dentistry degree in 1948. During that time, he legally changed his first name to Robert. He worked for the U.S. Public Health Service before opening a dental practice.

Survivors include two sons, Ronald Schattner of Potomac, Md., and Richard Schattner of Rockville; two stepdaughters, Kay Mikula of Oakton, Va.,and Deborah Fedynak of Richmond; and five grandchildren.