Medplus.cz started in 2006 in Havířov with three products and a catalogue that fitted on one sheet of A4, and today it supplies dental practices across the Czech Republic with more than ten thousand items.
A supplier sees the dental surgery from an angle the patient never does: from the stockroom. The answers come from Karolína Kapavík, DiS., product specialist for dentistry at Medplus and a trained dental technician, and were sent to us by Ing. Zuzana Šajnová from the company’s marketing and e-shop team.
We wrote to them because a healthy, good-looking smile depends on what a practice can offer long before the patient sits in the chair.
LOOKS treats appearance as a cultural and social subject, and the dental surgery is one of the places where it is quietly produced. We expected a conversation about materials. What came back was also a story about colour, reception desks and an eye that cannot switch off.
What follows is her account, lightly edited, in her words.
The answers were written in Czech. We have translated them, trimmed for length and changed nothing in the meaning.
In 2006 you started with three products and a one-page catalogue, today you have more than ten thousand. What has changed most in what Czech dental practices order?
I think dentistry as a whole is developing incredibly fast and in every direction. It used to be fair to say that three practices in the same building used the same products. That is definitely not the case today, and we can talk about three dentists with three different orders. That is why our range has swollen over the years.
Besides the growth in medical materials, other categories appeared and grew too, such as toiletries, medical clothing, cosmetics and office supplies. Because we want to meet our customers’ needs, we keep adding categories so that they can find everything in our e-shop.
Orders used to be collected by sales reps, often in waiting rooms, and the e-shop took over that routine. What do dentists still need from a person rather than a website?
I think you can find almost anything online today. But the web will not replace a personal, human approach. It will not give a dentist a proven working method from practice, beyond the manufacturer’s instructions. Often you cannot find an exact replacement online for a product that has been discontinued. In many cases the dentist does not want to, or has no time to, search for the information. It is quicker and more pleasant to pick up the phone and call someone who knows it from practice.
Your blog writes about the end of amalgam in dental practices. What does that change mean for how a treated tooth looks today, and what do patients think of it?
When the change was announced, there was a wave of dissatisfaction from patients. It was mostly about fears of high co-payments at the dentist. The Czech Dental Chamber did not hesitate and found a compromise for how these treatments are paid for.
The difference between the materials is visible to the naked eye. Dark amalgam has been replaced by white glass ionomer or light-cured composite fillings, which stand out, among other things, for their aesthetics. Working with composites takes more time, and the prescribed rules have to be followed. If they are, a composite filling will serve well for a long time, in the natural colours of the tooth.
One hundred and twenty-one practices have been buying from you since your first year. What have long-standing clients taught you about how a practice changes over time?
The first thing that comes to mind is the trend for coloured surgeries. I don’t remember exactly when it began, but I think we are talking about 2015 or so. Dental practices gradually started to coordinate their colours. Napkins, cups, saliva ejectors and face masks had to match the colours the practice had chosen. If a pink saliva ejector for a pink surgery was out of stock, a red one was simply not an option. Since then customers have been very strict about colour. They are willing to wait for goods that are sold out. Colour is a really important deciding factor.
Among other changes I would certainly include the arrival of reception desks. A reception is great: the patient or the supplier knows they will get through to the practice, and the dentist is not disturbed at work. Practices have also added dental hygiene to their services, and it is often required before a preventive check-up.
A personal one: after years among dental products, what is the first thing you notice in a smile?
As a trained dental technician, my eyes always go to the shape and cleanliness of the teeth. I try not to do it, but the professional deformation is stronger.
Three things worth taking from this conversation.
First, the pink saliva ejector. A practice that would rather wait for the right colour than accept the wrong one has understood something about appearance: people read a room the way they read a face, as a whole, and one wrong note spoils it. Second, the white filling. The end of amalgam was argued about in terms of money, but what the patient sees is a tooth that looks like a tooth again. Aesthetics in dentistry is not a luxury added at the end, it is the visible result of work done properly. And third, the eye that cannot switch off. Someone who spends her working life among dental materials looks at a smile first for its shape and cleanliness, and admits she cannot stop. That is what expertise does to looking.
Karolína Kapavík, DiS., is a product specialist for dentistry at Medplus.cz, a supplier of dental materials based in Havířov, Czech Republic: medplus.cz