Tag Archives: dentista

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Guided Surgery
training session bioservice matrix

GUIDED SURGERY
The lies they tell you and the truths they hide from you.
The dental sector has always been a land of conquest for subjects who, in order to grab the sale, often tend to give incomplete information or worse, misleading, suggesting miraculous solutions.
BioService has always been at the forefront, trying to give simple, clear and unambiguous indications, providing its customers with adequate tools, so that they can decide in complete autonomy, aware of the importance of having a credible and reliable partner at their side.
FAST IMPLANT GUIDE 3D CLINICAL PROTOCOLS
(Traditional, Intraoral scan, Double scan)
Clinical cases
RADIOLOGY
Construction of the radiological template in the various cases of edentulousness
FAST IMPLANT GUIDE 3D SOFTWARE
Planning and Certification,
STL imports,
Alignments,
Universal Stent Registration,
Prosthetic concepts,
Clinical Cases
They’re going to intervene:
– Dr. Massimo Gamberoni – key account manager at Media Lab S.p.A.
– Dr. Tommaso Bocchetti – freelance – free lance
The congress will take place in Naples on May 9, 2019 at the Gold Millennium Hotel.

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More than dentistry
Blog bioservice Matrix

When we talk about innovation in the field of dentistry, our mind leads us straight to think about the epoch-making change that the sector is experiencing thanks to the digitalization of processes, from diagnosis to therapy (Editor’s note). There is another important element whose implications are perhaps even more determined for the patient: the innovation of and in communication. An aspect still little considered by most, but which is radically changing the approach, and consequently the choice, of patients towards the dentist. Today we face one of these many aspects that are hidden behind the generic “Dental Marketing”. We are talking about experiential marketing that is changing the world of dentistry, generating significant benefits, including economic ones, for the patient and the practice.
Let’s cite some cases as examples in which dental practices have decided to innovate by promoting themselves thanks to collateral services that have been able to make a difference and divert patients to “their door”.
First example: Dental studies have thought of providing extra services in addition to what is strictly due to Dentistry and has offered collateral services of great value as allergy tests and for food intolerances, Kinesiology and Osteopathy. In particular, the latter two disciplines are aimed at the balance of the entire body-mind system. The areas examined to rebalance this system include learning, understanding, movement, motor coordination, the perceptual/sensory area and the organic area and promote biochemical, nutritional, physical, structural, mental and emotional balancing. The patient is analysed as an integrated system of devices that are in close dependence on each other. This corresponds to holistic medicine that does not separate mind and body in care. All these disciplines are very much in vogue and appreciated by patients who care about well-being and are attracted by the interpenetration of the two medical spheres. The result has been a much more frequent affiliation and constancy in care.
Second example: Patient services are implemented with a focus on aesthetic and cosmetic dentistry. There is a whole range of patients who ask their dentist for help in improving their “beauty”.
Aesthetic dentistry is the study and realization of dental restorations that restore or improve the aesthetic appearance. Cosmetics, on the other hand, concerns that part of therapies that aim to improve the appearance of one or more dental elements, oral and perioral tissues, the whitening of pigmented teeth, “dental piercings”, etc…
The patient is enormously attracted by everything that orbits around beauty and body care, even when the surgery is a “habit” and not a necessity.

Third example: it contrasts with the old aseptic models of study, which sketch a comfortable waiting room even if most of the time has the appearance of an antechamber of pain not very bright, with ticking clocks, and few contributions to the amusement of the mind.
It is a study that has marked the working activity according to the “passions” of its patients: Monday, after Sunday of sports matches, is completely dedicated to men! The waiting room is a sort of convivial situation in which newspapers, magazines and speeches focus on the criticism of the previous championship day. Time passes quickly and waiting becomes pleasant, to exchange the last impression on this or that other player, result, goal, purchase, card, bet.
Another day of the week is dedicated to women, the waiting room is filled with female voices and the plus is made up of a professional who on site performs the job of beautician and cheers the wait with tricks and enamels.
Other time bands are dedicated to children, who find themselves in a room that takes on the appearance of a room for games in which the thought of the dentist is sweetened by books, colours and many small peers.
By satisfying every age group, following the general lines of common interests, the office has managed to recreate a jovial environment in which sociality and care of the mind fill waiting times and worries.
Conclusions: these three examples of “strategic moves” certainly cost the study a different and “innovative” organization, by virtue of the final yield, the full satisfaction of the patient and his precious time. We can therefore say that varying and expanding our services, aiming at aesthetics, care of the mind and body, following the passions of our patients, guarantees an enormous return in terms of reputation, affiliation and word of mouth.

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“No! It is too expensive!”
fear estimate blog bioservice matrix

An uneasiness shared by both the patient and the dentist: the fear for the estimate.
We could say that in reality the fear of one is poured on the other. If a professional is literally afraid to submit his or her estimate to the patient (the most frequent hesitation is to present excessively expensive fees), he or she will certainly be wrong about the ways and forms because an honest and justified expense cannot be ignored if the patient’s needs have been endorsed upstream.
The patient presents himself to the study with certain expectations and objectives to be achieved. Anyone who sits in the dentist’s office chair already knows how they want to get out, and anyone who requests a service has a clear idea of what they want for themselves. The patient imagines the final outcome and on the basis of the variables of the case (such as time of execution and financial availability) decides on the proposal of the professional whether to carry out the therapy through a complete and definitive rehabilitation or proceed step by step. What he is not aware of are probably the technical aspects of the therapy, the possible physiological limits related to his clinical case.
The good dentist will be able to guarantee, through the person of his team delegated to the preparation of estimates, an estimate that reflects and embraces in full the real needs of the patient, whether they are related to the most obvious request that is the treatment of the disease, the aesthetic factor and function, up to the inevitable limits dictated by economic expenditure (absolutely binding for the purpose of accepting the estimate).
The figure who deals with interfacing with the patient to discuss together the amount of the final expenditure is not insignificant, it allows to separate the medical profession of the Doctor, compared to the purely economic / accounting context and has the opportunity in the preliminary meetings to intercept the needs of the patient integrating them to a rough analysis (but still well-founded) about the status of the person in front of him, a necessary moment in which we try to frame the individual so that we can take the most correct way to explain, motivate and propose the estimate.
Once the urgency, the necessity, the projection into the future of the patient and his “economic availability” have been understood, the suitable ways of treatment with the relative timing are submitted, always keeping in mind that the medical services provided are aimed at restoring the well-being of the entire organism and are not limited to the treatment of the teeth. The restoration of function and aesthetics are the final and most “visible” part of a much more complex and complex therapy, the result of careful and meticulous clinical investigations to assess every aspect of health as a whole. Only thanks to a careful and complete diagnosis by the dentist is it possible to carry out a personalized therapy because each person is unique and as such must be treated and satisfied.
If we want to talk about the modus operandi, the professional should prefer a modular approach (various stages) rather than an overall one (everything and immediately). In recent years the doctor-patient relationship has changed, once the word of the doctor was incontrovertible and the patient trusted, or had to rely blindly on the hands of their trusted dentist. In today’s scenario, where information and competition have altered the parameters of choice, the far-sighted dentist must find a way to explain, convince and operate in all honesty and transparency. Each patient is unique and as such needs to be treated, the doctor must reason in a targeted manner, motivate one line rather than another, ensure the result by embracing the needs of the patient and then make them coincide with the economic availability.

With regard to financial management, one is led to think that the first and only parameter taken into account by the patient is the amount of the fee. In reality, it is only partially correct. Of course, the advertising that stands out on the windows of low-cost chains that promise low-cost performance attracts, but at the same time how can you promise a therapy, and a performance, without a proper diagnosis? Without having seen what clinical condition the patient is in? Without knowing exactly what his expectations are? Without these essential elements it becomes almost impossible to propose targeted, effective solutions, able to fully meet the patient’s expectations.
The dentist must be aware of the fact that the difference is not the estimate but the listening of the patient that leads to intercept the best and most suitable “care” according to expectations and possibilities. It is not certain that a patient does not accept an “important” estimate, perhaps deferred over time, by virtue of the predictable final yield, rather than an estimate “below cost” which in fact does not allow the patient to be treated in the best possible way.

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Patient or Customer?
patient or customer blog bioservice Matrix

Patient or costumer? …simply two sides of the same coin!
Let’s analyse the two words that make up the dichotomy.
Patient means “person affected by a disease, and more generally, who is entrusted to the care of a doctor or a surgeon”, while customer in current use is “who usually uses the services of someone or buys what he needs from the same supplier” (Italian Dictionary).
In the light of the definitions it seems easy to assert that, since the dentist is a doctor, the people who turn to him are his patients as a result. But how much have the patient’s requests and the service provided by the dentist changed?
The dentist knows that the patient has much wider demands than “simple pain treatment” so it ranges from aesthetics to orthodontics. The practitioner decides to invest money and time with equipment and learning curve to satisfy the wishes of the patient who gradually becomes more and more “customer” given the varied demands that go beyond pathologies. It requires a service, weighs the costs and analyses them from an economic point of view. Certainly the best thing to do is not to catalogue or label, it will be the request itself that will make the individual a patient or a client. The patient has a painful problem that he wants to eradicate by relying on the wise hands of his doctor, the customer has intentions and evaluates the economic exchange to meet needs or desires.
It seems almost as if the two roles are intertwined: there are alternating phases in which the individual demonstrates to calculate, to choose in a very careful way, and this denotes typical traits from the client, then the phase in which the individual makes contact with the doctor and listens to him in the diagnosis and in the proposed line of care, and the figure of the patient is outlined, when it comes to estimates, it is natural to emerge again the trait of the purchaser. All in all, it is nothing more than a mix of both figures that alternate by weighing costs and benefits, quantity and quality.
From the ethical point of view of the medical profession, it is advisable to attribute the term “patient” to the individual because of the service provided by the doctor himself at the time of need. Having said this, the new frontiers (demands) in the dental field have shifted the horizon of the dental profession, widening the margins of work and profit for the dentist, who inevitably has to make use of prudent marketing strategies to propose his services while maintaining intact the ethical sense and a correct perception of the real state of health of the patient himself.
The person has multiple needs and the dentist can find a way to accommodate them: the patient requires care, attention, seriousness, professionalism, continuity; the client asks for prices (check the rates and compare them), convenience (the location of the office, if it is more or less easy to get there and park), timing (number of sessions, speed of execution), avant-garde (the latest techniques in use to be sure to get the best results), modernity (there is a need to develop the office and follow the trends of the moment regarding image and dental aesthetics).
The spectrum of relationships has expanded but the focus remains on the individual and his needs, whether as a patient or client.

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Rehabilitation of FULL ARC
Rehabilitation of FULL ARC training meeting education

Rehabilitation of FULL ARC with post-extraction implantation technique and immediate loading on six implants in live surgery.
More and more often the patient knows how important it is to rely on professionals who can definitively solve his problems. Restoring the function and aesthetics of implanted prosthetic care is only the final and most “visible” part of a much more complex and complex therapy.
The aim of the course is to present an advanced prosthetic implant therapy live with simple and reproducible techniques.
Speaker:
– Dr. Antonio Perasole – freelance –
The course will be held in Portici (Na) on March 9, 2019 at the Studio Dentistico of Dr. Perasole.

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Ignore, suffer or manage? How to respond to the digital revolution
digital blog bioservice matrix

The insert “Health” of Corriere della Sera dedicates an entire page to digital oral surgery focusing on words such as speed, safety, predictability.
The speeches that appear in the Special Health dedicated to the dental are by illustrious dentists who explain the technologies applied to their profession and that of their employees and colleagues. Here are some of the strengths of the new dental frontier highlighted in the dedicated column:
– the number of appointments that gradually decreases with a relative increase in comfort for the patient (saving in terms of time and money)
– the possibility of speeding up operations that previously required more sessions; this is also a benefit for the dentist who, through the use of technologies, can plan, operate quickly, accurately, precisely and with reduced margins of risk of error
– Surgery and therapy in total safety with the help of personalized surgical templates, designed on the computer and printed in 3D
– reduction of discomfort for the patient
– the scientific evidence in digital, i.e. the proven validity by the International Scientific Society that allows the use of these devices (scanners, cone beam computed tomography, milling machines and 3D printers)
This insert gives an idea of how, for example, guided implant surgery is of great help in aligning the “Craft” to the generalized computerizing of almost all existing jobs with obvious benefits on several fronts.
Digitization: why not?
Digital technologies have changed and will increasingly change the clinical practice of dentistry both from the diagnostic point of view (instrumental investigations such as CT Cone Beam, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasonography) and in the operational approach (CAD-CAM technologies, intraoral and laboratory scanners, 3D printers).
The digitization of the doctor’s office is an inevitable process, despite this growth does not seem to present relevant data to support the change (for example, the intraoral scanner to take impressions is present in less than 5% of dental practices).
As we mentioned some time ago, the problem of “dissemination” of this important and profitable innovation could be the initial investment and the chronic reluctance to change by the medical sector in question. It is clear that digital is present and applicable in every dental activity, particularly in radiological diagnostics, so much so that the digital design of prosthetic products has been the prerogative of dental technicians for years, and many of them are much more advanced than dentists in this field. Possession of these cutting-edge skills would bring undisputed advantages, especially to the new generations of Dentists and Dental Technicians who find it difficult to emerge in the sea of competition, but the resources seem to them insufficient in the face of the initial investment. But if you think that, in a single day of work, a trained professional can make interventions and products that previously required several sessions, it is obvious how to amortize an initial expense that seemed prohibitive. Reduction of time, costs, waste, but above all satisfied, paying, loyal patients who return, speak proudly of their dentist and expand the circle through word of mouth or sharing of various kinds (e.g.: social networks).
How does the social scenario change inside and outside the dental office? What do these “advanced practices” mean in terms of harmony within the dental practice team? And what benefits does the patient derive from outside?
The digital approach has significantly improved communication in the dental team between the various specialists and dental laboratories: the acquisition of multiple data (CBCT, intra- and extra-oral scans, virtual aesthetic and implant planning) has favoured the interpenetration of executions, integrating them in order to optimize the diagnostic process and monitor over time the changes in oral tissues and restorations.
The introduction of digital systems has also improved the relationship with patients who benefit from greater comfort considering the elimination of impression materials and the advantageous time management; it is possible to verify in real time the correctness of the impressions, to store the data no longer having the need to produce physical models and to carry out three-dimensional digital checks.
The possibility of commenting on the video on the virtual aesthetic planning of the “smile” together with the patients themselves, is certainly a motivational and communicative contribution not to be underestimated. Feeling so involved, patients willingly accept the treatments, limiting misunderstandings (concerning the therapeutic and economic treatment).
Are digital methods within everyone’s reach?
Do they require prolonged learning curves over time or are they easy to acquire?
Logically, it is right to report also some aspects that lead to mistrust in the approach to the “new”: in the common imagination, we speak of rather complex learning curves and significant investments with high costs. Although there is a fund of truth about the onerousness of training and instrumentation, virtual planning equipment (surgical and aesthetic) has very intuitive interfaces and methods of use. It is necessary, as for all things, to practice to optimize their use, progressively reduce time and enhance their performance. They are within everyone’s reach but require a learning curve that varies according to the operator’s experience and the number of cases treated. The Digital Dentistry is a new figure of professional who has specific skills in the field, a qualification that requires continuous training. Digital will be the usual way of working because the dental supply chain goes in this direction.
Those who do not want to face change have as their only choice to close themselves to the future and unfortunately see the decline of their employment. For those who still have a few years of activity ahead of them, refractoriness (both in terms of learning curve and costs) can be understood and shared, but for those who have an entire career ahead of them it is a deliberate damage to their future (already extremely uncertain) to cling to the old analogue methodology.
BioService and Matrix have long been supporting and encouraging change by embracing the demands of dentists with the latest news in the industry offering advice and components for digital dentistry.

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“People by people”. The lack of confidence is expensive
lack of confidence blog bioservice matrix

Americans remind us that “people buy people”, which means that we prefer to do business and establish relationships with people we know and trust. The same is true in the specific case where an individual has to entrust his or her health to a dentist.
We want to talk about the values that make a dental office the best friend of smile and health, bringing psychological and physical well-being and a better standard of living. The esteem for the professional, who installs security about the care and serenity about his constant presence, ensures the consolidation of a relationship of trust that goes far beyond the service.
The honesty of the estimate, indissolubly linked to the loyalty to the patient who is engaging their assets to solve health problems (because health also and especially passes through the mouth), creates the relationship of trust. This theme develops in antithesis to what emerges from the Rai report, which shows that one of the characteristics that makes the low-cost clinic less reliable than the private dentistry sector is precisely the lack of trust, the opacity of the fleeting relationship between doctor and patient.
In fact, it was pointed out that the doctors of the clinics were often performers of an unspecified number of interventions on different people, without having clear the clinical cases and the various developments of the cases themselves, often abandoning the cycle of operations in progress, passively executing the schedule proposed by the estimate (poor diagnostics and often inflated with unnecessary or non-impellent interventions). Precisely for the reasons just mentioned, the large low-cost chains are often seen as the “tooth supermarkets”, where the best offer, the most advantageous price, the promotion of the month flows in superimposition…
But individuality? Customization? Feeling patient and not customer?
Do chains work on trust or sale?
It must be said that the category of dentists has not enjoyed for years a good reputation because of the large sums required of their patients and the poor communication to justify the fees; this has opened the door to the chains that play on price and aesthetic appeal. Today, those who work and continue to grow are detached from these stereotypes and clichés, have embraced the path of transparency and listening, finalizing the business in respect of primary needs. This involves great sacrifices, great commitment and great perseverance. There are four focal points to follow to activate the positive vicious circle of trust that triggers emotional and economic feedback:
– integrity, i.e. consistency and honesty regarding the work;
– the intent, i.e. the purpose, the motivation that does not develop without the basic care of others because there is no intent that works “alone”, is right to exist only if related to those who need and the consequent approval of those who request the service;
– the essential link between capacity and credibility, skills distinguish and must be updated, cultivated and communicated for complete and effective services;
– the result, to ensure results that meet the needs.
Trusting your Doctor means entrusting him with your health, credibility should be the most important negotiating tool in the possession of the dentist. On the contrary, inaccuracy and omitted truths that give rise to false impressions and lead to underestimate or overestimate certain services by virtue of the acceptance of the final estimate (see low-cost chains) are not premature and do not create stable and lasting relationships (or even good word-of-mouth).
Data in hand: when confidence rhymes with revenue.
The relationship of trust is an emotional commitment between two people based on mutual respect, ethics, a positive feeling. The results of a negotiation based on trust promise greater revenues in the future. Feedback quantifiable with overwhelming numbers regarding both the number of patients who return and the propagation of the image of the study, becoming a sounding board, living marketing (it is a process in which the individual becomes a source of communication and promotion of the services and professionals who made them, but above all of the values. In this case it is natural and unconscious, the smile is the strong point of this “open-heart”, spontaneous marketing).
The Dentist is a very important and delicate profession, he is the one who supervises the ability to feed us properly, smile without shame, curator of our psychological and physical well-being.
And it is precisely trust that determines the choice of dentist.
Convert trust into income. How to ride the wave of trust to make yourself known?
The true value of reputation?
It is measured in confidence and credibility that influence the propensity of patients to go back to where they “were well”, where they were cared for and followed, where a good or a service they could appreciate the quality.
Reputation, credibility and confidence are verifiable and quantifiable, the results lead to feedback and propagation of the “name”. To ride the wave, if it is positive, you can assist with a good social marketing strategy by creating consensus thanks to its presentation on the Net, the Digital Engagement (hiring of possible patients through social platforms for example).
For this reason, it is essential to distance oneself from the background noise by setting up a communicative style that is understandable, stimulating, curious, that guarantees the quality that stands out and continues to propagate the values and transparency and above all the closeness to the patient, the one that is so difficult to perceive in the chains where people feel like customers in line for the purchase of a product.
BioService and Matrix, in this sense, can help the Professionals in the admirable management of the professional potential of their dental office.

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Patient’s expectations
patient expectations blog bioservice matrix

Let’s go in the patient’s shoes… do they go wide or narrow?
Each company is committed to managing its work by focusing on the needs of its customers, in the same way the dentist must have at heart the expectations and needs of its patients.
We want to find answers to these seemingly trivial questions:
What do patients expect? Why should a patient choose a professional over another? What are the variables that determine preference?
We asked a sample of people with different ages, interests, needs, habits, jobs and lives directly to answer these simple questions regarding the choice of the dental office. The choices come from well-defined parameters. It will be interesting to compare the patient’s expectations with those of the Doctor by comparing them with the results of the survey. Specifically, the survey was conducted on a sample of 150 individuals (Italy, September 2018, sample varied in terms of age, average user from the economic point of view) involving all age groups: children under 12, children under 20, people under 45, over 45 and middle-aged over 65. The questions, being open-ended, required interpretation in order to manage the final data in calculable percentages.
In general, this type of trend and preference emerged:
Care for the environment and hospitality
With a percentage of 90%, respondents expressed this basic need. The children have underlined the need to enter dental surgeries as little as possible aseptic, with dedicated areas and smiling staff. In order to avoid the white hospital gown, colours would be fundamental in order to brighten up the context, making it “less medical and more playful”. On the other hand, the rest of the interviewees, also raising the age range, show the same need that is to be welcomed in an environment that is able to infuse as much as possible serenity, familiarity and positivity through colours, furnishings, cleanliness and corners recreation / recreation.
360° information
With a percentage of 85%, the request for information is overwhelming. The remaining percentage includes almost exclusively the “under 12” bracket, which is directed by close relatives for the choice of the attending physician and which trusts the information in the possession of their relatives. From the adolescent age group, gradually growing with the age of the interviewed, the desire is to have useful information about the study, treatment, types of interventions; first of all, patients admit to check the presence in the waiting room of the information material (transfer of valuable content) and then ask the team itself the ability to communicate and give explanations and comprehensive guidance. Information on site and online through an updated and functional website where you can find most of the information. The demand for modernity and avant-garde involves all age groups.
Clarity on estimates and costs
Most of the respondents (65%) are convinced that the cost is a relative problem for the pockets, also considers fundamental the explanation of the various items that make up the estimate explained from the point of view of the treatment even before the price. The widespread need is to find the right professionals who know how to recommend the best intervention, in the time and number of essential sessions (widespread fear is that of optional treatments that only inflate the fee). Patients also need to be able to defer payment, so as to embrace full treatments divided into several steps with payment in instalments.
Comfort
Excluding the children who have strictly highlighted the playful part of the pre-visit, the rest of the respondents (70%) said that the choice of dentist also depends and above all on this type of factor that embraces both the willingness to fix the visits, check-ups, interventions in days near the call or in accordance with the needs of the patient and the convenience of the location of the office; the proximity to free parking, to service centres, to quiet areas that are easy to reach and leave without further costs in economic terms and in terms of time in the event of reaching areas with limited or congested traffic.
What others think
Almost all the interviewees showed that the choice of the dentist is determined by the word-of-mouth factor (90%), coming from the opinions of friends and acquaintances (judgement taken into consideration) as well as from the web in which they pull up the reviews left by patients (monitoring especially by young people under 45). It would be appropriate for the dentist to have a clear idea about the widespread idea of his practice, especially the online reputation that spreads in a viral way. Thanks to the virtual presence (social, website, familiarity with various platforms) the doctor will be able to monitor and act on his image to improve and propagate it (by advertising). And this is how the patient himself requires the presence of the dentist on the web to be able to quickly compare his profile with that of other colleagues and draw his own (partial) conclusions.
The statistics have shown that those interested want to be informed and comfortable.

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Dental technician: a dying job?
dental technician blog bioservice matrix

Technology allows jobs to be carried out that are close to perfection and the workforce is disappearing. Automation is expected to be so high in the near future that a large proportion of many professions will change substantially. The introduction of digital technologies has been the main driver of the current revolution.
The latest report by the McKinsey Global Institute “A Future That Works: Automation, Employment, and Productivity”, confirms this trend: almost half (49%) of the work done today in the world by natural persons can be automated. Even in Italy, where the replacement rate would be between 49% and 51%. This means that more than half of Italian workers, about 11 million people, could be replaced by a machine. The World Economic Forum speaks of a loss of 7.1 million jobs by 2020, offset by a gain of two million jobs. Therefore, the negative balance is five million fewer jobs in the world within the next three years.
Crafts will be the most involved and affected by this orientation, followed by work at the counter as the cashier bank (eclipsed by home and mobile banking) or the insurer (overshadowed by online insurance), but also jobs in the operating room and in public services. The cash machine replaces the cashier, the ATM the bank at the counter, Amazon and Ali Baba (just to name the biggest giants) eclipse salespeople and sales agents, Booking the employees of hotels and travel agencies, email the postman, robots the workers, apps and websites the call centre phone operators, in fast food you order and pay via a touch screen, to buy a dress just click the virtual window on the computer screen and wait at home for delivery. There are many other examples of how computer science and its applications have changed the habits of life and disparate professional environments.
But we are here to talk about another profession that is inevitably seeing its stability falter: the dental technician. The profession of dental technician has always been of fundamental importance within the “dental chain”, so much so that it can be defined as irreplaceable and necessary, a central figure of prosthetic dentistry. To think that this profession and the related manufacture of prostheses are not part of this pressing trend towards the complete automation of production processes is by no means realistic. On the other hand, it is right to remember that all the knowledge, materials and techniques currently in the possession and use of dental laboratories have in turn been conceived and experimented with a view to evolution, as it is logical that they will be replaced and archived to leave room for novelty, in an inexorable life cycle that travels along the line of time and requires willingness to change and learning.
Is there a risk that the dental technician will no longer be the central figure in prosthetic fabrication? Who has been saved from the relentless advance of new technologies that replace the human hand with the “robotic arm” or high-performance machines?
The final question is how ready the dental technician is to take this epochal change, how open he is to new markets. The category was divided in half between those who invested and wanted to experience the future through 3D and those who, frightened by costs, learning curve and scepticism about the evolutionary path of the trade, remained faithful to the traditional technologies always had in their possession (delegating the delegable). Surely those who have managed to get on the “technology cart”, have invested in the future, created collaborations with colleagues and business networks to work in synergy, chosen evolutionary paths for their laboratory in a forward-looking and futuristic business perspective, are now floating and emerging.
First of all, you should be able to get the advance of knowledge and have mastered these new basic skills (the laboratory evolves and with it the figure of the professional), know how to take advantage of the time to make choices and investments, communication and sales strategies, propose and adapt to the changing needs of the market with processes with “high added value”. For example, there are those who have focused on medical devices tailored to the prevention of trauma (e.g. professional mouth guards for athletes, footballers, water polo players), there are those who have ridden the market of aesthetic dentistry or orthodontics. Increasing turnover without being stifled again by what is still called a crisis but which in reality could resemble more to a reticence to the “new landscape” and the “new” demands.
Putting aside what concerns learning and the propensity to change, it is right to point out that the 800 million euros of revenue that moves the Italian market of the dental sector (divided between studios and laboratories) have made the eye fall on the considerable presence of companies and centres that deal with 3D printing and CAD/CAM technologies. A market that no longer sees itself with the dental technician’s laboratory alone, but with the dominant presence of milling and laser melting centres.
As stated by the National Union of Italian Dental Industries, in collaboration with Key-Stone statistics, which commissioned the survey, the data show that 24% of dental laboratories rely on CAD/CAM production centres, preferring this working method to the traditional ones of the dental technician. The number of laboratories that decide to rely on these “digital centres” for the entire production process is increasing: from the design to the production of the works themselves.
It is right that the figure of the dental technician integrates in his professional routine techniques and CAD/CAM technologies, able to facilitate the work and the quality of the executions considering that the dental market is physiologically converting all the techniques and technologies, up to being almost completely digital. But are the historical figures of the supply chain (industries and suppliers, dental practices and dental laboratories) developing combined strategic-entrepreneurial actions? The answer is: not yet enough. It is necessary to ennoble the figure of the dental technician and to privilege the collaboration with the dental practices able to appreciate the quality of the Italian laboratories. At the level of business management, the aggregation of companies can be of great support, both to contain costs and to optimize resources and dominate a complex market.
The new technologies will require the inclusion of more technical and qualified professionals to manage the new systems. The training of professionals will be of fundamental and indispensable importance.

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Dental technician is a doctor or a seller of teeth?
dental technician seller teeth blog bioservice matrix

How has the context in which the dentist works changed? Is the dentist a doctor or a seller of teeth? What is the benefit for the patient?
These questions open Pandora’s box in the field of Dental, a huge amount of reflections placed in the context in which our Professional operates.
The panorama has completely changed, the dentist finds himself living the so-called “empty drawer syndrome” and suffers the presence and the pressing spread of the “low cost” chains. It seems that the last solution to adopt, considering the “crisis” that has emptied the agenda, is that of the sale of sales in the dental field! As if the value of the service were eclipsed in the face of the advantageous price.
The so-called chains operate on economies of scale and on marketing communication (with a focus on the most expensive therapies such as orthodontics and prosthetics, especially on implants), all this has favoured demand but first of all has created new models of reference on the market. The communication used by the chains, and the huge budgets allocated to this dissemination of information, have had a significant impact on the market, because on the one hand they have made implantology better known and on the other they have destabilized the pricing policies of the traditional dental system. Given the low prices, the collective “value” of therapies has been lost.
In fact, the tendency on the part of the average Italian patient is not to abandon the traditional study but to rely more and more on the chain for expensive interventions (prosthetics and orthodontics). From statistics – data other consumption 2016- the average cost of a patient with a traditional dentist is about 370€ while it is about 900€ when he decides to turn to a chain.
But you should not be suspicious in the face of the word marketing, it means nothing more than “create and give value to the service“, marketing is not purely sales. People don’t buy products but solutions to their problems and that’s why ethical marketing uses communication to express values, spread the culture of health and raise awareness of the need for care by stimulating the economy of the dental office. Therefore, the dental office must have a healthy communication and a good dialogue with the patient, that is, transparency; the patient appreciates who follows him/her in the course of treatment, who motivates the provision of the service by illustrating the quality of the service itself. The service given by the doctor to the patient is not only based on the “tooth product” but above all on the ability to make a diagnosis. One cannot be undervalued and talk about the price of the product (tooth) when the doctor’s fee is based first of all and above all on the provision of the service.
Ultimately, people do not buy what you do but why you do it. Giving a predefined price to a diagnosis, a treatment, or a rehabilitation plan is absolutely incompatible with the service itself. There are certainly fixed costs such as material, production, transfers and deliveries, physical developments, equipment, but the cost of a service is not bound and justified only by these amounts but the intrinsic value of the service provided by the doctor. The doctor advises, clarifies, includes and follows the patient before, during and after. The doctor enables the patient to benefit from the best possible service, made up of competence and mastery of knowledge and tools. This makes the difference, creates value and must be disseminated through targeted information.

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