The clinic owners Yvonne Reinartz, Dr Jürgen Schmitz and Kleinsorgen, work together with six other dentists to provide dental treatments for their patients. The clinic has recently expanded to a second location close to the main clinic, and the number of treatment rooms has increased by five.

“Our main location has 12 treatment rooms, three of which are used for prophylaxis. The facilities were simply no longer sufficient for our entire team. We were constantly getting in one another’s way,” said Kleinsorgen, laughing.

“When it became possible to expand our clinic by five new treatment rooms across the street, we quickly made the decision to seize the opportunity and started planning the expansion with our long-time partner, Nordwest Dental (NWD),” explained Kleinsorgen.

Sustainable future clinic made possible

The dental team at Zahngesundheit Frechen has high requirements for new technologies and values innovative ways of working. This was the foundation for planning the new treatment rooms.

“Internally, we have always talked about a ‘future clinic’ because we want to show what is possible in dental care. We already use Planmeca’s imaging devices and intra-oral scanners at our main location, and we like the company’s idea of connecting all the devices,” said Kleinsorgen.

“For us, the environmental aspect is also important in order to show what is currently possible. For instance, the dental unit-integrated Planmeca ActiveAqua water treatment system is a great example of an innovation which takes the environment into account: it purifies the water without added chemicals. The digital possibilities combined with green thinking led us to fully rely on Planmeca technologies in equipping our new treatment complex,” he continued.

Of all the new technology at the clinic, the Planmeca Emerald S intra-oral scanner is Kleinsorgen’s favourite. According to him, the scanner offers excellent image quality at an affordable price and is “a playground” for digital dentistry. He added: “Digital impressions were introduced several years ago and have become an industry standard. I enjoy testing what is possible beyond the usual standards. I can do so using Planmeca Emerald S and its open file formats.”

Innovative room design allows new opportunities for training

Surprisingly, Kleinsorgen named the waiting room as one of the highlights of the new clinic. Thanks to its innovative design, it can also be used for training sessions. “The waiting room is equipped with movable seating, a projector and a screen board, so we can also use it for dental training. An opaque glass panel separates the waiting room from a treatment room, and the panel can be switched to clear simply by pressing a button. In this way, dental operations can be followed live at the clinic without compromising infection control,” explained Kleinsorgen.

“With the recently installed Planmeca Solanna Vision operating light, we can also record treatments using the operating light’s integrated cameras and display the procedures with the projector in our training room,” he continued.

Succeeding in an extensive project with a competent partner

Expanding a dental clinic by five new rooms is an extensive project, especially in addition to the normal daily clinical work. Zahngesundheit Frechen managed to finish the project in only six months, although some unexpected problems had to be solved during this process.

“As both of our clinics actually belong together and have one client base, we wanted to store all of our files on one server. We asked our local telephone company what it would cost to connect the clinics with a fixed network, but the price was astronomically high. However, we were able to solve the issue on our own. We currently synchronise the data from both clinics via a Wi-Fi connection. The files from the new clinic are transferred across the street with the help of point-to-point bridge technology and saved on the server at our main location,” stated Kleinsorgen.

For those considering expanding their own clinics, Kleinsorgen shared some advice: “Be creative and try thinking outside the box. I personally recommend turning to a trusted partner with your concept ideas and searching for suitable solutions together with them.”

“We are grateful to sales manager Michael Beckers and his team at NWD for all their support,” he said.

Editorial note: The interview with Maximilian von Kleinsorgen was originally published in German by Planmeca’s distributor in Germany, NWD.

 

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