Dentsply Caulk: A Solid History of Delivering Top-Performing Products
L.D. Caulk, a dentist in Delaware who made his own materials, stopped practicing dentistry in 1877 and began manufacturing dental products, such as cement,gutta-percha, filling materials, and alloys. DENTSPLY International bought the company in 1963 and is now the largest professional dental products company in the world with facilities in 22 nations on six continents. In the early 1970s, DENTSPLY Caulk developed one of the earliest light curable composite materials, Prisma Fil®.
Danny Vezmar, Senior Brand Manager for direct restoratives and a third-generation employee, says, “We have a solid history of top-performing materials. Our primary focus is identifying what dentists need to be successful. When we have developed, changed, or launched a product, we’ve talked to a lot of dentists, observed procedures, and made every effort to understand what oral health care professionals require to make their work easier every day.”
DENTSPLY Caulk relies on customer interaction to test concepts, vet ideas, and determine which products the company needs to design and deliver. “We talk with customers throughout the development cycles to determine what improvements are needed, assess handling properties, etc. We let them get their hands on a product quite a bit before we launch anything,” Vezmar says. “We create study sites and do clinical trials, tracking products over time to ensure that they do what they’re supposed to do.” DENTSPLY Caulk also conducts surveys and large-scale product evaluations and asks for opinion leader feedback. After a product launch, all DENTSPLY divisions support an extensive continuing education (CE) effort. “We constantly sponsor CE events and stay heavily involved to make sure information is getting to the folks who need it,” Vezmar continues. “We remain engaged in all facets of a product’s use to help support the clinicians who rely on us.
“We are very customer-needs based, especially with composites,” says Vezmar. “Caulk has a long history in this category. We’ve been there from the start. Regardless of the dentist’s technique for anterior or posterior direct restorations, we have the matching product in our portfolio, with our range of universal composites, posterior composites, and flowables.
Esthet-X® HD High Definition micro-matrix restorative is DENTSPLY Caulk’s newest brand. “We’ve done a lot of work on glass filler technology,” Vezmar says. “We have found the optimal filler type and distribution to provide the ideal combination of handling, physical properties, and polish.” Esthet-X HD is a nanofilled high-definition composite with a newly optimized filler particle distribution system that removes the frequency of larger particles, providing faster polish and wear similar to natural enamel. Esthet-X HD is available in 31 shades and three opacities, allowing for layering multiple shades or for use of a single shade.
TPH®3 is a visible light-activated nanofill that combines a micro-resin matrix with a proprietary blend of glasses for long duration, creamy consistency, exceptional luster, and strong physical properties. More than 11 years of clinical use has demonstrated the TPH brand’s high performance in all restorative options, as well as light refraction and color absorption. It is available in 26 shades and indicated for all direct anterior and posterior cavity classes. It can also be used for direct veneers and indirect inlays and onlays.
Ceram-X™ is a light-curable radiopaque universal material that can be used on primary or permanent teeth. It is the only restorative with organically modified ceramic nanoparticles that are 70% smaller than traditional nanofillers. Ceram-X is indicated for direct restoration of all anterior and posterior cavity classes. Ceram-X mono offers a simplified shading system with seven shades and is ideal for fast, single-shade treatment procedures.
“As for the DENTSPLY Caulk pipeline, we are continually investigating what composites need to deliver in the future,” Vezmar explains. “We’ve designed some really exciting resin technology with very unique clinical benefits that we’ll launch later this year. There is a lot of opportunity with composites to minimize stress and shrinkage during the polymerization process, which will allow for some unique procedural benefits. Our philosophy is to understand what a product needs to deliver to make dentistry a success. By studying how products are used, we can better determine how to provide the next-generation clinical solutions to our customers.”
DENTSPLY Caulk
38 West Clarke Avenue, Milford, DE 19963
(800) 532-2855
(800) 788-4110 [fax]
www.caulk.com
