An Interview with Laxmi Dental Lab USA
Harshil Kakadia, M. Architecture, CEO
Nikita Kakadia, CDT, Executive Director | Kunal Merchant, MDT, COO
INSIDE DENTISTRY (ID): How is your company unique?
Harshil Kakadia (HK): Laxmi Dental Lab USA Inc. is a full-service dental laboratory. It has an exceptional combination of local laboratory support coupled with global production experience. In fact, it is owned by a group of dental laboratories that serves customers worldwide. The main production facility is located in Mumbai, India. With help of more than 1,000 trained technicians, Laxmi Dental Lab is at a world-leading position, which allows us to research and implement new technologies to help create better products for dental professionals. At Laxmi Dental Lab USA, we are constantly updating our business model with integration of state of the art dental technologies.
The local laboratory, Solitaire Smile Dental Studio, provides value-added benefits to the dentists who like their restorations made in the USA with faster production time. Even though all of the restorations are made locally, they are intended and priced for average dental practice. The goal is to provide quality restorations at affordable prices. With the help of our team of master technicians, the cases are monitored on each and every step of production. Our company is unique because in spite of global presence, we are still a family-owned and operated business.
ID: What are the three most important elements of your success?
Nikita Kakadia (NK): Passion. We love dentistry, always have. For more than two decades, our goal has been to research and implement new technologies. Curiosity is the key and that is why our technical staff is always working, including weekends. It is our main goal to find and test new techniques that can help save both production time and dentist’s chairside time. With more than 15 master technicians in the family, all we talk about is dentistry, even at the dinner table.
Kunal Merchant (KM): Education and training are the main factors to keeping the doors open in this economy. Masters all around the world train our technicians and provide them hands-on experience on site. The facilities are on a constant upgrade to keep up with new technologies such as CAD/CAM, selective laser melting (SLM), 3D printing, etc. We have successfully started providing SLM restorations to our clients.
HK: Customer support is our backbone. Our customers have the access to 24-hour customer service center with 5 different languages. With our case monitoring system, the customer can track cases and see the progress at each step of production.
ID: What inspires the forward motion of your company in today’s marketplace?
KM: Simply put, patients. We receive calls, emails, and texts from doctors and patients with the most amazing transformations that our restorations provided. Seeing the patient’s excitement and listening to their emotional stories are the things which we love to live for. Nothing makes us happier then putting a smile on someone’s face.
ID: How is the global economy impacting your operations?
HK: In a quite positive way. In fact, our relations with international corporations give us advantage to buy materials at a lower rate and lower the production cost, which we can pass onto our customers. With feedbacks from the dentists around the world, we are committed to providing better than average products.
ID: Can you share what you have in the pipeline right now?
NK: By April 2015, Laxmi Dental Group will be 100% digital. Laxmi will be providing intraoral scanners to our clients for better and simpler workflow. The R&D department is testing a digital impression module, 3D printers, and an all-new customer portal as we speak. With all of the advancements, we are becoming more sophisticated and simpler to work with.
