New FONA Showroom in marvellous Salernomore>FONA Around the World: Kiev Callingmore> The 16th West China International Exhibition & Symposium on Dental Equipment, Technology & Products Commercial Training – FONA Complete Products Portfolio IDEX 2017 - 14th Istanbul Dental Equipment and Materials Exhibition A Buyer’s Guide to Dental Chairs In comedy and entertainment, the dental chair portends ill; either pain or torture (or both) is sure to follow. Unfortunately, the dental chair can be one of the negative images most frequently associated with the dental profession. In the past, it was a setting all too often associated with discomfort and vulnerability. Modern dental chairs are comfortable for both patient and dentist, ergonomic, and an assembly of high-tech equipment that most patients associate with the delivery of dental health maintenance and esthetically improved smiles. by George Freedman, DDS, FAACD, FADFE Several decades ago, the selection of the dental chair was a deceptively simple exercise;
predicated upon choosing the right color for the operatory at the right price. In contrast, today’s practitioner is well aware that the correct dental chair, its options, and its built-in technologies can influence not only the comfort and the ergonomics of the operatory, but the efficiency and profitability of the entire dental office. The practitioner and/or the office designer spend a great deal of time developing the practice environment; the dental chair must serve the physical needs, and complement the clinical requirements of the dentist and the staff members. In most situations, a test-run under actual operating conditions for a new dental chair is not practical. Therefore, it is important for the dentist to do extensive homework prior to making the purchase decision. There are many sources that offer descriptive and comparative data, and these analyses can be very useful in the selection process. Perhaps the most important, and most overlooked, is the practitioner’s own experience.
It is helpful to take note of what is good and practical about the currently used dental chair, and to develop a wish list. By merging this information, the parameters of the ideal dental chair begin to emerge. Test-drives of the short-listed contender chairs at a conference or a showroom will assist in fine-tuning the ultimate decision. The first task is to evaluate the latest chair equipment available, and then to extrapolate these to the technology needs for the next decade (a reasonable minimum service life for the dental chair). Dental chair technologies are in a state of rapid flux; continued research and development simplify treatment and make its delivery easier. In selecting a dental chair, it makes sense to implement every practical technology of today in order to stave off its inevitable obsolescence as long as possible. Increasingly, dental chairs offer future-oriented platforms that permit after-purchase additions. Given that dental chair engineering is evolving rapidly, allowing for future advances is very sensible.
The dental chair’s contribution to the practice image is significant; it is the most visible item in the operatory. For a patient meeting the dentist for the first time, the dental equipment is the background to a new, and perhaps complex, relationship; up-to-date chair technology and appearance is likely to impact positively on patients, inspiring confidence in their choice of dentist, and perhaps making their commitment to treatment plans more justifiable. Last, but not least, the dental chair is the workbench where the dentist and assistant spend eight or more hours per day. The dental chair must readily adapt to the practitioner both ergonomically and functionally. Even a slightly annoying functional nuisance can have a serious impact on work quality, productivity, posture, and practitioner health. A long-term ergonomic issue (particularly one that is repetitive) affects not only practice success, but also the duration of the dentist’s career. In selecting a dental chair, learn all the options;
determine which ones are needed, and choose the most suitable. It is one of the most critical purchases that you will make. Dr. George Freedman is a founder and past president of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, a co-founder of the Canadian Academy for Esthetic Dentistry and a Diplomate of the American Board of Aesthetic Dentistry. Dr. Freedman sits on the Oral Health Editorial Board (Dental Materials and Technology) is a Team Member of REALITY and lectures internationally on dental esthetics and dental technology. A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Dr. Freedman maintains a private practice limited to esthetic dentistry in Markham, Canada. Self Learning, Self AssessmentAs you like itNews Home » City » KanpurIIT-K students develop low cost dental chairAbhinav MalhotraKanpur: Three students of design program (name of a department) of IIT-Kanpur along with a team of students from PUJ (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) university based in Colombia in the US, under the guidance of IIT-K faculty members have remained successful in developing a low cost dental chair worth Rs 20,000 only (this does not include the price of the dental tools used by the dentists).
This is the cheapest dental chair in the Indian market as the traditional chairs range anywhere between Rs one lakh to five lakhs. The affordable dental chair developed under the ME310 (name of a course) program run at Stanford University has been named as 'FLux". The prototype of the chair has been installed at Sardar Patel postgraduate institute of medical and dental sciences in Lucknow where it is being used successfully since September 2015. This has raised hope that the mass production of this dental chair could be done in near future which would further bring down the cost. The development of this dental chair has received applause from project director, Standford university, Larry Lifer. The most unique feature of this dental chair being that it is very patient friendly. Talking to TOI, Amit Kundal, PHd scholar at IIT-Kanpur who has worked on developing the chair said, "It was after carrying out thorough study of the present day dental chairs and the needs of the patients that we started working on the design of our chair.
While we omitted out those features which were not required, we added a few features which could have made our designed chair a comfortable experience for the patients. The dental tools which otherwise a patient is able to see on a traditional dental chair is not visible in our model. The tools visible to the patients unnecessarily create panic in his mind knowing the fact that he has to undergo a dental surgery." He while talking about a new feature of this chair said that spittoon has been made modular in low cost chair instead of it being manual. Kundal said that in this mega project two universities including IIT-Kanpur and PUJ Colombia were the academic partners, Sardar Patel PG institute of Medical and Dental Sciences in Lucknow was the industry partner. The project was supported by Stanford university. Prof Shantanu Bhattacharya under whose guidance the dental chair was developed said a patent for the low cost dental chair has been filed by us. He said that the students took guidance and consultation for their project from other faculty members on the institute campus.
This included valuable comments from Prof Satyki Ray of Design program department. Mohit Tewari, another student involved in the project informed that the low cost dental chair will come in the budget of the dentists who otherwise find it difficult to set up a dental clinic as the tools specially the chair comes very costly. He said that the cost of the chair starts from Rs one lakh but this one is only for Rs 20,000. Therefore, any student clearing Bachelor of Dental Surgery course will be able to set up his clinic easily now. "In India every second person has dental hygiene problem. There is only 1 dentist for 2.5 lakh people in Indian rural market. In urban area for every 10,000 patients, there is only dentist. Consumption of tobacco and Cigarette are the major causes of such situation. The cost of setting up dental facility is very high and that is the reason why there is such a gap in terms of dentist per person in India. Thus we took up this challenge of designing a affordable dental chair for masses in India", said Tewari.