HK’S CLINICAL KNOWLEDGE PAYS Dividends for Laboratories
Innovative offerings help technicians impress their customers
Maybe one of the reasons Heraeus Kulzer has been such a successful manufacturer of innovative products for dental laboratories is that it also designs and markets products for the laboratories’ clients: dental practices. “We are equally dedicated to dental laboratories and dental practices,” says Chris Holden, President of Heraeus Kulzer North America. “It’s imperative that we understand the needs, wants, and priorities of dental practitioners, and these insights allow us to bring our laboratory customers products that enable them to better meet the needs of their customers.”
Heraeus Kulzer’s recently launched Pala Digital Denture System might be the best example of this synergy, proving to be a game-changer for laboratories and practices alike. According to Holden, the Pala Digital Denture System addresses 4 crucial needs for the typical dental practice: greater patient satisfaction; reduced chair time; increased new patient opportunities; and higher case acceptance. “This remarkable technology allows us to partner with our laboratory customers to bring benefits to practices,” Holden says, “and that makes us both look good.”
Pala Digital Dentures significantly improves patient satisfaction by delivering a much more precise fit, exceptional esthetics, fewer trips to the dentist, and a much shorter time from impression to final placement of the denture. Dentists greatly value the reduced chair time resulting from the fact that only 2-3 patient visits are required, versus 5 or more for conventional dentures. The exceptional fit, esthetics, and convenience allow the practice not only to attract new patients who are now considering dentures for the first time, but also to increase the percentage of current patients who accept the dentist’s recommendation to start wearing dentures.
By delivering such a valuable service to their customers, laboratories are able to enjoy higher margins. In addition, because Heraeus Kulzer manufactures the dentures from digital scans that the laboratory produces with its existing digital scanner, there is no need for the laboratory to invest in new equipment in order to take advantage of this exciting opportunity.
“We’re thrilled that this breakthrough technology is able to simultaneously improve the fortunes—literally and figuratively—of both our laboratory customers and our practice customers,” Holden says.
But the Pala Digital Denture System is hardly the only way Heraeus Kulzer makes its laboratory customers more successful. Its Pala Mondial® denture teeth—which are featured in the company’s digital dentures—have long set the standard for lifelike esthetics, precise fit, outstanding durability, and efficient processing times. Additionally, the company offers an impressive array of productivity-enhancing equipment. Its Palajet® pneumatic injection unit is exceptionally precise yet surprisingly easy to use, and its Palamat® Elite can cure up to 3 flasks or 6 dentures simultaneously. Heraeus Kulzer even offers a time-saving prosthetic measuring instrument—the PalaMeter—developed by the company, appropriately enough, in collaboration with both dental technicians and dentists. Heraeus Kulzer also offers the Modern Materials® lines of gypsum products and wax products, both of which have earned an unsurpassed level of trust and respect among dental laboratories worldwide.
Last but not least, Heraeus Precious Metal Refining—one of the world’s largest private refiners—has an unmatched reputation for paying its laboratory and practice customers the highest returns in the industry for their scrap metals.
Heraeus Kulzer is a special company serving 2 groups of special customers. As Holden says, “Our dedication to dental practices enables us to be the best possible supplier to dental laboratories, just as our dedication to laboratories allows us to be the best possible supplier to practices.” Heraeus Kulzer might not be the only dental manufacturer that serves both laboratories and practices, but it is hard to imagine one that does it so well and in so many ways.
