City Dental Care is a thriving family clinic located on 200 Spencer Street in Melbourne CBD. Led by principal dentist Dr Annie Cao, the clinic has been experiencing steady growth since the affable dentist moved her established practice from Geelong to Melbourne city some 5 years ago. Dr Cao and her business/life partner, Steven Shi, agree that the move to set up a two-chair practice in the vibrant city centre – where there were no lack of dental clinics in every direction – took strong convictions and calculated assessments. The same thoughtfulness was evident in their selection of a new dental chair – the XO4.
The partners recently set up a Cosmetic Centre on 620 Bourke Street to accommodate a burgeoning clientele of beauty-minded patients – while adding six more chairs to cope with the demand. With the new centre, Steven reckons they can rotate 20 dentists at full capacity – there are currently 8, including Dr Cao.
The addition of XO4 was telling of this goal and Dr Cao’s key focus with ongoing expansion plans. “We wanted a facility that is welcoming to patients and dentists alike. It must be a place that a dentist enjoys working in as much as it is comfortable for the patient.” The choice of dental chairs, she adds, must reflect that.
XO4 is the top-of-range model from XO CARE, the Danish equipment manufacturer known formerly as Flex Dental. Following its high profile European tour at IDS and SWEDENTAL, local distributor Fairway Dental introduced the innovative dental unit to Australian dentists earlier this year.
While XO4’s Australian debut was preceded by claims of it being “the Porsche of dental units” – an acknowledgement of its fine European pedigree and engineering excellence – it is the chair’s practical ergonomics and build quality that Dr Cao finds most attractive.
“It is a solidly built dental chair, although at the same time, it looks stylish and modern. Its compact design fits very well into different environments – making it ideal for both big and small rooms.”
“It offers many low-maintenance features including a self-cleaning system that makes infection control a breeze.”
Infection control on the XO4 is boosted by an innovative hands-free software application that allows the chair to interact with other software, running on the same PC. The operator can stay focused on the patient’s mouth without making any contact with a mouse or keyboard, thus minimizing cross contamination. The unit is also coated with anti-bacterial nanoscale silver paint that prevents bacteria and moulds.
Patient comfort and operator-friendly features are what Dr Cao considers chair essentials – and XO4 does not disappoint.
“The chair is highly adjustable and easy to operate. All our dentists are amazed at how simple it is to configure the chair to their individual preference, no matter if they are right or left handed.”
“We love the continental design. No hanging tubes means it’s not as messy and all handpieces are lightweight and a joy to handle. The lack of recoiling action from the handheld devices also diminishes operator fatigue and hand soreness at the end of the workday.”
“As for patients, the adjustable headrest and well-designed neck support greatly improves their level of comfort.”
XO4 features what has been touted the world’s most advanced user interface. XO Smart Link is a software solution running on a PC (connected to the unit) that broadens the functionality of the unit. As an integrated dental IT solution, the XO4 allows operators to control unit instruments, programs and functions, external instruments. The open-ended system allows new feature upgrades in the form of plug-ins – promising virtually unlimited potential. Although Dr Cao has yet to install any software, she finds the plug-and-play connections “too easy”.
She finds Fairway’s after sales and technical services no less impressive. “The service has been good. They came out personally to teach us how to use the chair, which was useful. When there was an issue with the headlight drifting very slightly, they came to fix it within a couple of hours of us contacting them.”
Convinced of XO4’s huge potential, especially considering its upgradable functions, Dr Cao says she would consider purchasing more units, should the need arise.
“Although we’ve only had it for two months, we are very happy with the XO4. It’s easy to use, efficient and overall a superb chair.”