Forums › Other Lasers › Misc. Laser Forum › Diagnodent sales drop!
- This topic is empty.
-
AuthorPosts
-
dkimmelSpectatorRumor has it the sales of Diagnodents in the US have dropped and Kavo is worried.Since the the dollar is down from the Mark it seems not to be an option to decrease the price.
My Schein rep did a survey of her clients and over 70% that have bought it are no longer routinely using it!
What is wrong with this picture.?You have a product ( over priced) that works and people don’t buy it and those that do do not continue to use it.Yep I already asked who the people where that were not using it. Nothing like trying to get a bargain!!
DAvid
Glenn van AsSpectatorI think it is like so many other things…….
lack of training …….
Maybe if they had the CD from Graeme Milicich.
Neat post…….
Glenn
drnewittSpectatorGood point Glenn
I also think it is something you have to form a habit of doing, such as many things during an exam. (ie. prob, chart, radiographs, etc.) It is to easy when rushed to say ” oh, we will get the readings next visit” and fall out of the routine. The novelty of the technology wears off after awhile and then it becomes another chore. The training, as Glenn points out is also a problem. To many DD users not knowing how to use the unit and getting frustrated rather than educated. Same thing happened with apex locators in the beginning.
I think we have to treat out exams like pilots on preflight checks. There is a series of steps and they have to be followed. While it may become a bit monotonous it is in the best interest of the patients oral health. It wouldn’t hurt if Kavo actually included a training CD like Graeme’s, or at least sent his out and paid him some royalties.
kellyjblodgettdmdSpectatorI think Glenn nailed it: “I think it is like so many other things……. “
To really maximize the use of the Diagnodent, you have to commit to the change. I have had to force myself every day for the year and a half that I’ve had the DD not to pick up an explorer (as I was trained in school) and poke a hole in the tooth looking for decay.
It is hard to believe that a piece of equipment which is relatively so cheap and provides such a great deal of information is routinely so under-used or not used at all.
But, of course, in my neck of the woods, so many dentists are still “restoring” teeth with amalgam!?
Until kids are being taught how to use DD’s in dental schools, I think that it is unlikely that it will catch on in the masses. I think most dentists still look at what is being taught in the schools as the standard of care (How sad.) My two cents.
I will say – I love mine!
Kelly
William CookSpectatorI may regret asking this but who is Graeme Milicich?
dkimmelSpectatorGraeme Milicich
New Zealand
http://www.advancedental-ltd.comKnows his GIC. Has some great SEM . Pretty smart guy.
Most of his posting is on DT.David
whitertthSpectatorI think Kavo has also done a prett shitty job of marketing the Daignodent…The people that have purchased are the usual early adopters like us, and they havent done a darn to market this well….It now has caught up…Kavo needs to examine withinand they will find the answer to their problems.
Graeme MilicichSpectatorQUOTEQuote: from cook cordell on 3:03 am on June 25, 2004
I may regret asking this but who is Graeme Milicich?Me:biggrin:
When the DIAGNOdent hit the market in Ne Zealand at the beginning of 1998, there was absolutely no training or information that was of much use.
I spent 18 months using an operating microscope, taking photos and opening up carious fissure very slowly with very fine air abrasion tips (down to .007″) and equating what was found clinically with what the DD was tell me.
Out of this research, and a reasonable understanding of fissure caries and enamel morphology, I created an educational CD on fissure caries and how to use the DD.I sold it to KaVo so they could send it out with every DD. I don’t know if they are still doing this, but if they aren’t then there are a lot of users out there that don’t understand what they have got or how to use it properly
Cheers
( I see I am still a newbie in this site. Need to post a bit more;) )(Edited by Graeme Milicich at 5:18 pm on Sep. 29, 2004)
Glenn van AsSpectatorGreat stuff Graeme, and I do think that you probably know more about the Diagnodent than many reps and many in the company.
Its a great tool when used properly and the backup of using 10X power on the scope with the diagnodent to visualize decalcified enamel, or early fissure caries is a very powerful pair of technologies.
The diagnodent helps me immensely in knowing which fissure caries cases I can do with the laser without fear of large lateral spreading at the DEJ which is difficult to treat with laser alone.
Often below 40 I find its possible to do with the laser but above the decay can get spread out wide. I can even know which way the decay will spread by the direction the tip gives the highest reading under the scope.
Neat stuff.
Glenn
Graeme MilicichSpectatorAnother reason I think sales might have dropped off is the way inscos and state boards are attacking dentists practicing minimally invasive dentistry. More and more dentists are being persecuted for trying to do the best for their patients by not hacking great big GV Black cavity preps into their teeth.
When you hear of a dentist that has been hauled over the coals for being minimally invasive and “ripping the patient off”, you would naturally be a bit gun shy of doing the same sort of dentistry, in case you are the next one they gun for.
When the inscos see the greater picture, rather than simply trying to protect this year’s profit margin, and some of the dinosaurs on state boards get put out to pasture, then minimal intervention dentistry will become the accepted standard of care.
Down under, we do not have any thrid party regulations that govern the standard at which we practice. It is a personal choice, based on your own philosophies and knowledge. As a consequence, New Zealand has the highest per capita usage of the DIAGNOdent of any where in the world
Third party groups tried for several years to gain a foothold in NZ, but failed miserably because we saw what it was doing to the standard of care in USA and Australia.
Patients were only choosing options that were covered by the underwriter. New, better treatments options evolve, but are not taken up by the inscos, meaning patients either don’t get offered the choice, or decline it because there a a cost involved.
Most Kiwi dentists resisted the marketing push by various inscos and PPO’s. Who in their right mind would want to become part of a PPO and become one of a group who have patietns refred to them by the underwriter, only if you take a 20% reduction in your fee scale, based on current average fees. I think they thought we were dumb or something.
If PPO’s inscos etc are one of the forces keeping the DD usage from increasing, New Zealand is the proof. No PPO’s inscos, and the highest uptake of DD usage in the world
Cheers
drnewittSpectatorI was actually told by my DD rep that Graeme’s CD was included. Of course it was on back order. A year later and oh… a half dozen reminders and still nothing from the rep. No one I know with a DD recieved a CD with the unit when it arrived.
Paul
jaynelsonSpectatorI recently purchased the DD and it did come with Graeme’s CD. I had just put in an order to Graeme an hour before it arrived, so quickly cancelled it. The CD is excellent and would have been well worth it if I had to purchase separately, though.
Jay Nelson
Lutz, FL
Graeme MilicichSpectatorQUOTEQuote: from jaynelson on 3:04 am on Nov. 29, 2004
I recently purchased the DD and it did come with Graeme’s CD. I had just put in an order to Graeme an hour before it arrived, so quickly cancelled it. The CD is excellent and would have been well worth it if I had to purchase separately, though.Jay Nelson
Lutz, FLJay
Good to see you got a CD with your order. I can’t quite work out what is going on with some getting CDs and others not having it included. Must be something to do with local repsCheers
-
AuthorPosts