MIS Implants regional director, Alex Raychuk, opens up over the company’s ethos and plans to streamline implant dentistry in the UK.
Can you tell us a little more about MIS Implants?
MIS Implants was established in 1995 and since then we have grown to become one of the largest implant manufacturers worldwide, distributing our products to 67 countries around the world and selling almost a million implants each year.
Our slogan is ‘make it simple’ and that’s very much what we’re about. We’re trying to simplify everything we can for implant dentists – by providing the best quality implants, of course, but also by integrating systems that dentists can use in a simple, easy way.
I don’t think one can talk about simplifying implant dentistry any longer without talking about digital technology. In the past, when we talked about simplifying things, we’d talk about protocols, or tools that are easy to use, or implant design. But today, with the digital revolution in dentistry, I think that conversation is now about integrating digital systems.
I think we’ve succeeded in doing that to a large degree but there’s still a long way to go, and we’re doing our best to bring the most modern, most simple solutions that we can.
What’s at the core of the company ethos?
We help our customers by providing innovative implants, and by integrating these implants into our digital protocols – into our state of the art Mguide surgery solutions, for example, or into modern CAD/CAM systems. By supporting and promoting full digital workflow solutions we help dentists to provide the best and the most modern treatment to patients.
For a lot of dentists, the digital revolution means information overload, and that’s a big challenge for everyone. Dentists are very busy with their everyday work, and we must help them by presenting solutions that are as easy to assimilate as possible.
This is our vision – to go further. To help dentists treat more patients, achieve better clinical outcomes and stay focused on their chairside work.
You have recently been acquired by Dentsply – how did this come about?
The acquisition came after Europerio 2015 in London, where we launched our innovative V3 implant. This implant has a triangular neck, which offers better clinical outcomes by allowing more space for bone growth without having to change the protocol. As a result bone resorption is significantly reduced around the implant’s neck.
The implant was designed by well-known, distinguished clinicians such as Professor Nitzan Bichacho, Dr Eric Van Dooren and Dr Yuval Jacobi.
After we launched it, there was a lot of interest in the company and a year later, we were subsequently acquired by Dentsply. We still run the business in keeping with our original mission. I think we’ve retained the soul of the business through the acquisition – we’re a very flexible company.
You’re a relatively recent entrant to the UK market – what are your plans here?
Yes, we entered the UK market with a direct sales subsidiary less than two years ago.
It was another natural follow-on from Europerio to do that: I think we’re now in the right place at the right time, with the right products in our highly innovative V3 implant and Mguide guided surgery solution.
Dentists today are graduating with a greater awareness of implants but they need to understand how these protocols work. Implant dentistry isn’t just about the screws – it’s about the technology surrounding the treatment too.
Young dentists, and dentists starting out in implant dentistry, should all be equipped with knowledge of things like guided surgery and the technology that facilitates modern implant dentistry. If the technology is available to help dentists get better clinical outcomes and there is evidence that it simplifies things, there’s no reason not to start looking at it as standard procedure. We are planning to contribute to the education process. Experienced dentists and specialists will also find this solution very useful in their everyday practice.
We believe that it’s the dentists’ role to promote their clinical services to their patients, but we definitely feel that our new products can help attract more patients to a dentist. If a dentist can offer a very high level of treatment at a reasonable price by using state-of-the-art modern integrated solutions, the patient is going to be more attracted to them. We don’t want to forget that, in the end the main goal is to make implant placement less invasive and more predictable for a patient, with the best possible aesthetic outcomes.
What sets your customer service apart, in your eyes?
I think it’s important not just to provide good products but to establish a very modern level of customer service, and I think we do this.
We support our customers wherever we can. We provide planning for guided surgery cases, for example, so we’ve simplified our products, protocols, and our services too.
But even more important in today’s market is giving the service of integration.
The biggest challenge for dentists today is understanding all of this new technology and how to integrate it into their practices. They need to master a lot of new software, how to handle a lot of new devices, and it takes a lot of their resources to do it.
We’re here to facilitate this for them, and to bring them solutions to their problems.
It’s not just having the best technology, it’s about coming to the dentist to help them introduce and use it effectively. This is the heart of our mission; to help them do this in the most effective way.
What does the future hold?
Without any doubt the future is all about digital dentistry and the best possible aesthetic outcome. The future is patient oriented.
Every dentist now needs to take into account patient comfort and ensure that treatment is minimally invasive, involves less time spent in a dental chair, is safe, predictable and meets both aesthetic outcomes and very high patient expectations of the dentist’s skills in utilising new technologies.
As for MIS, we’ve tried to innovate across our range, from investment into making sure that we have one of the cleanest implant surfaces available on the market to making our guided protocols easy to use. All our implants come with a single-use sterile final drill as a standard. The V3 implant helps clinicians get more bone without having to change their protocol; it’s easy to integrate our implants with modern CAD/CAM processes; we offer help for our dentists in planning their Mguide cases. We believe that surgical guides will be soon the gold standard for every implant dentist.
At the IDS in 2017, we introduced the innovative B+ surface, which is engineered to improve bone to implant contact, and to treat medically-compromised patients. Now this surface is standard on all our V3 implants.
Taken individually, these are all good things, but putting them together is what achieves the results. We’re trying to create a single, simple system that anyone can start to use immediately, and which brings benefits to dentists and patients.
A lot of our growth has come from word of mouth, as more dentists attend our courses and tell others about what they’ve found, and as a business we believe that’s the best way to grow. But we’re also looking for synergies within the industry. It’s not about competition – in the UK there’s a lot of room to make the market for implants larger.
In my opinion, we need to work together as an industry to educate dentists and give them the right tools. There’s a lot of space in the UK for new implant companies if they bring added value to dentists and patients.
Alex Raychuk is regional manager for central and eastern Europe at MIS Implants.
For more information, call 0208 912 5135, email [email protected] or visit www.mis-implants.com.
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