The context of this famous quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet is centered on a much deeper discussion around life or death. While certainly not a life or death situation, a lab or dental office deciding to move to digital dentistry can be very confusing and traumatic (and expensive). This digital uncertainty and anxiety does not respect boarders whether within the United States or Internationally. To ease that anxiety, Whip Mix is expanding its digital presence internationally.
Whip Mix has been an industry leader in analog products and service for over 100 years. We intend to stay true to our analog core business model for 100 more years and bring digital into our family of products and support internationally! This analog dentistry leadership has led our customers and competitors to know us by our innovative solutions and quality products that are affordable. Those benefits are like the ante in a card game – you must have them to enter and survive the dental manufacturing and distribution game. What is unique about Whip Mix, which others try to emulate but few do it better, is the technical service and customer service that follows the product and services you receive from Whip Mix. In a digital transition, the service after the sale and the service that can cut across product lines is perhaps the biggest gap in going digital and is by far the most important.
The digital revolution has a strong foothold in the United States and is certainly found internationally, but the COVID restrictions have kept the digital revolution from sweeping the world as it has in the US. We believe the international digital revolution has begun and will quickly sweep the land. Whip Mix is in the center of that growth. In addition to a suite of digital products offered internationally, we have created a digital technical support team that matches our world renowned analog service response expertise. Whip Mix can bring together the many loose ends of the digital work-flow and create alignment across the many stand-alone products that is critical to overcoming the digital angst.
The key to dental digital success is two-fold:
1) Have as many ‘open-sourced’ pieces of equipment as possible. This helps prevent investing too much in a single manufacturer’s product line that may leave you ‘stuck’ as new innovations or systems are introduced that your current provider cannot readily offer when you need it.
2) Have available the post-sale technical support for the products and ideally, have a technical support group with the ability to cross product-line boundaries and support your entire workflow. By doing so, they can help ensure the pieces of your digital work flow communicate and connect across product and lab service lines.
Listed below are some of the key digital questions we hear from our International Customers. These issues seem to apply to those deciding to move into the digital world for the first time as well as to those who are already knee-deep in digital dentistry but searching for answers.
- Do I need an Intra-Oral Scanner (IOS) to be digital? How does it fit with my analog business?
- IOS can range in price from $5,000 US to $25,000 US. How do I choose?
- What software do I need to model build and do restorative design work from my scan?
- How ‘digital’ must my lab partner be to support my digital initiatives?
- What 3D printer is best? I see prices from $40,000 US to $400 US.
- Which print resins should my lab start with?
- How do I ensure my digital products and/or systems can communicate with each other?
- I am interested in setting up an in-house digital lab – where do I start?
The answers to these questions are for another blog, but rest assured, Whip Mix stands ready to provide that independent voice with solutions. That is exactly why Whip Mix is bringing its proven technical support expertise to our international customers digital work flow. We are positioned to bridge the analog and digital gap supported by a full suite of digital products and 3D Printer Resins. Most importantly, the products are all fully supported technically by our international partners and in-house team. Whip Mix offers these products and services on a stand-alone basis or in unique packages designed to meet the international customer’s specific needs.
Finding that unique combination of innovation, quality products at affordable prices - backed by superior and in depth technical service - becomes even more critical in the digital dentistry decision process. The world of digital does change rapidly with new entrants copying and ‘improving’ the previous products. The existing manufacturers then must innovate to stay relevant with what they original introduced. The pace of this change cycle moves much faster in the digital arena than in the dental analog world. Finding independent guidance and doing adequate research is even more important as a lab or clinic moves digital. Let us at Whip Mix help you navigate this sea of digital change with a voice of reason coupled with 100+ years of expertise from your Kentucky friends.
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