Tony Dib Interview with Rajender Kumar, Dentsply Sirona Manager – Middle East & North Africa

What are the advantages that Dentsply Sirona brings to the Dental Office and to the Dental Laboratory?

As more and more dental professionals add digital capabilities to their practices and labs, they need a true partner to help them advance confidently and fully leverage new technologies. We are committed to providing a distinctive customer experience, emphasizing education, innovation, and support for practice growth.

Our digital solutions are designed to simplify treatment, ensuring it is easy, safe, and achieves excellence in terms of accuracy and patient satisfaction. Recent launches, particularly the DS Core platform, exemplify our dedication to this philosophy. DS Core serves as a comprehensive solution, connecting products, services, and technology through a cloud-based platform, fostering efficient work processes and collaboration among colleagues and partners. Primeprint Solution, our medical-grade 3D printing system for dental practices and labs, stands out as another exceptional product, offering a multitude of benefits.

The shift to digital dentistry is likened to an investment in digital workflows, where each component seamlessly interacts to yield repeatable, reliable results. This approach to standardization not only mitigates errors but also elevates the overall patient experience and helps to create efficiency for both dental offices and labs.

Our vision is to reinforce our position as a leading digital solutions provider, and continue to grow our already loyal customer base.

What is the focus or the directions in which DS is leading the dental market to?

Dentsply Sirona has a vision to transform dentistry to improve oral health globally. We believe that the age of digital dentistry has arrived and also represents the future of care. We see the value and importance of digital technologies in dental workflows. That’s why we are focused on delivering the digital dental solutions that meet the needs of dental professionals and of course, their patients – this is how we move dentistry forward collaboratively. Digitalization is also an enabler for dental professionals to increase their offering and set their practices apart in the eyes of patients. It is important that we keep asking how can we make it easier for the dentist? How can we help them to increase patient acceptance of treatment and to remain in treatment through its completion?

We are doing this by building a digital ecosystem of connected technologies. Together these create a single source for professionals to utilize that helps them to confidently communicate with their patients, improve outcomes, and also gain efficiency to bring more people into dental practices.

DS was the pioneer in CAD/CAM technology, is it still leading the way?

As pioneers in the field of digital dentistry, our unwavering commitment to leadership in this area is a cornerstone of our business strategy. To fuel continuous progress, we allocate over $180 million annually towards advancing dentistry, supported by a robust research and development team comprising more than 650 scientists and engineers. As a customer-centric organization, we collaborate closely with our customers and dental experts, ensuring a holistic understanding of their practice needs and fostering the development of cutting-edge solutions for the future.

In our relentless pursuit of innovation, we recognize the pivotal role technology plays in shaping our offerings. With a focus on maintaining the highest standards of research, we are dedicated to refining the technology that underpins our innovative solutions. Additionally, we strive to provide dental professionals with up-to-date resources, enabling them to expand their clinical knowledge and digital skills in tandem with the evolving landscape of dentistry.

A prime example of this commitment is evident in our 3D printing technology. Already a transformative force in the dental industry, 3D printing is actively contributing to the production of surgical guides and aligners, with vast potential to become a key technology for this part of dentistry. Recognizing the significance of 3D printing, we developed Primeprint Solution to be fully automated and the process is incredibly streamlined. And we continue working to enhance its efficiency and productivity and increase its indications of use.

In essence, our dedication to leadership, innovation, and technological excellence positions us at the forefront of digital dentistry, driving the evolution of solutions that not only meet current needs but anticipate and address the challenges of tomorrow.

How are you helping the dental offices in the digital migration?

I mentioned that we want to be a true partner, helping our customers to give their patients the best possible care to achieve healthy smiles, and to achieve their professional goals. In that spirit of partnership, we can guide dental professionals on their journey into the digital practice and laboratory. Regardless of where a dental office is on its journey into digital dentistry, Dentsply Sirona offers the right solutions and the clinical education – both online and in-person – to integrate new technology into the workflow and take the next steps in that journey.

Our Dentsply Sirona Academy offers both live and on-demand educational programs. Each year, we engage approximately 490,000 dental professionals through the DS Academy’s educational courses.

Is DS striving to offer the dental market quality products and services?

We strive to deliver great products and solutions with an uncompromising focus on quality in everything we do. That’s something that we have recommitted to as a company. And to help ensure that, we maintain strong relationships with many leading dental professionals worldwide. We listen to their needs and integrate their feedback into our development processes.

Dentsply Sirona has a proven track record in terms of innovation and bringing quality solutions to market. Our aim is not to digitalize analogue procedures, but to develop digital dentistry that advances dentistry as a whole. In other words, we don’t want to be known just for digital dentistry; we want digital to be synonymous with better. Managing a broad portfolio is not new to us and we are focused on connecting this product portfolio intelligently. We have developed a range of signature workflows designed to help dental professionals seamlessly integrate products and equipment from our end-to-end portfolio to optimize efficiency and ensure confidence at every step of the patient journey. This has the added benefit of improving the patient experience while also being able to handle more cases in less time – key factors for growing a practice.