There’s no business like dental business
2021 is Planmeca’s 50th anniversary. As part of the milestone year, we are publishing a series of articles written by our own specialists and by dental experts from around the world. This time, Planmeca's Vice President of Sales Jouko Nykänen takes us on a trip down memory lane as he shares with us his experiences travelling the world and witnessing the digital revolution of dentistry unfold.
My history with Planmeca spans over two decades – which is almost half of the company’s 50-year journey. The old saying, "Time flies" is an understatement when taking part in such a supersonic long-haul voyage, especially with a crew like ours.
If we fast rewind the past twenty years, it is just mind-blowing to think of all the technological revolutions and how the whole dental world has been reshaped. Patients still need to have their cavities treated, teeth straightened, implants placed, and surgical operations performed. The clinical needs and anatomical facts of a human being have remained the same, as evolution continues its long and steady march. It is the speed, safety, consistency, predictability, and overall effectiveness of dental care that have improved massively thanks to the technological evolution that follows a very different, exponential growth path.
We at Planmeca have been very privileged to be in the forefront of this development and to have witnessed closely the improvement of patient care. In fact, Planmeca has been able to contribute greatly to directing this development, always with a steady aim to improve the factors that are the most critical to patient care and the work of dental professionals. Living in the cold, sparsely populated North, we have always had to think long-term and work for the common good as a team.
It was very interesting to start working for Planmeca in the late 1990s with the mission to further develop the sales in Asia. It was the time of the economic boom in many Asian countries, and a very fast digital revolution was just behind the corner.
Back then, our product demonstrations still focused mainly on hardware, and when showcasing our first digital Planmeca Dimax panoramic solutions and the first Dimaxis software applications, clients were mostly trying to figure out what the small box, also knows as a laptop computer, placed on our booth was. At dental shows, I had to resist our customers’ efforts to buy my IBM ThinkPad, which was a rare tool in those days.
The appetite for new technology was growing and the willingness to learn was delightful. We spent a lot of time trying to explain how on earth it was possible for a panoramic image to travel immediately from the detector to the screen and then back to a hard copy. It took some time for the processes and protocols to catch up with new technologies.
The discussion on radiation protection was also still in its early stages, and we listened to many well-justified worries − for example, our customers wanted to know how long radiation could remain in an X-ray room before it was safe to enter.
The revolutionary Planmeca ProMax® platform − that enabled even the first film-based units to be fully upgraded and converted into 3D units with unlimited software-based opportunities − was also something completely new and removed most doubts concerning the safety of investing in new equipment in such a rapidly changing world. It was indeed quite a risk to buy a device from most manufacturers in those days, as traditional products were about to become obsolete very soon. Customers were truly happy when they realised the "future proofness" of our ProMax line and that one unit could do the work of several machines.
Somehow, in the beginning of the new millennium, our digital innovations were introduced to different markets at exactly the right moment, and we were able to capture a fair share of them. Furthermore, we witnessed the rise of many new players who used Planmeca’s core concepts as a benchmark, sometimes going to the extent of using our digital sample images in their brochures. Our mechanical designs were obviously very attractive examples for many manufacturers in the industry. Our integration concepts and multifunctional digital platforms were copied by many.
The last twenty years have also taught us great lessons. I found out rather quickly that Finland and our glorious history were not as well-known as we had thought. I was once interviewed by a very prominent reporter of a well-known dental magazine. The first question was, “How do you feel now that the Iron Curtain has been lifted and you can finally enjoy freedom?” I replied politely that yes, we have now finally moved to full independence from being an autonomous province of the Russian Empire. The conversation then turned to the "Norwegian" company that was the world leader in mobile phone technology.
Being a modest Finn, I also do not mind when my answer, when asked about my country of origin, is repeatedly heard as "from England" instead of my clear wording "from Finland." Perhaps this has something to do with a language called Finglish, which is a combination of English and our own local dialects. The simplest form is commonly used by our famous motor racing professionals who frequently amuse the world with their slightly eccentric command of the language. The trickiest one is the version that people from certain regions of Finland speak. It sounds like perfect English, but the meaning of the words may be completely different (or not). This is something tourists should beware of.
Over the years, I have also learnt that the world is not always such a stable and calm place to do business and to travel as we might think in our remote, cosy corner of the world. There was a time when I seriously considered upgrading my insurance, just in case. This was after having missed the Mumbai hotel attacks by just a few days and after having returned from the Middle East and seeing the ruins of a strangely familiar hotel on the news. Later on, when the news came from Colombo that an explosion had occurred in a local hotel, it was really no surprise when I realised that it was the one that I had just recently visited with a Finnish delegation.
Luckily, digitalisation has reached such a level of maturity that digital applications actually work, both for our large global customer base and for us in our daily activities. Nowadays, we can have virtual face-to-face meetings thanks to excellent online tools no matter where we are. We have learnt to communicate even more frequently and to be even closer to our partners and clients than before, thanks to new technology. We can participate in meetings of any kind and practice our Finglish skills without wasting time in all sorts of vehicles and waiting areas. Not that I’m implying that socialising with other railroad travellers on night trains − which haven’t exactly resembled the Orient Express – hasn’t been among the highlights of my career in the exciting world of dental equipment.
Anyway, there’s no business like dental business, and we will try to stay real even in the modern, increasingly virtual world. At the end of the day, nothing compares to real-life meetings with customers, and brainstorming around the same table always makes ideas fly higher.
Copy: Jouko Nykänen
Images: Planmeca
Planmeca Oy and Planmeca Group
Planmeca Oy is one of the world's leading dental equipment manufacturers with a product range covering digital dental units, CAD/CAM solutions, world-class 2D and 3D imaging devices and comprehensive software solutions. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Planmeca’s products are distributed in over 120 countries worldwide. With a strong commitment to pioneering innovations and design, it is the largest privately held company in its field. Planmeca Oy is part of the Finnish Planmeca Group, which operates in the field of healthcare technology. The Group's turnover in 2020 was MEUR 764, and it employs nearly 2,900 people worldwide.
www.planmeca.com
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