You don't need me to tell you that the dental industry is vast, complex, competitive, and resource-intensive, which often means that professionals and companies can only devote themselves to so much at one time-so they specialize.
But I'm going to tell you here, for rhetorical purposes, because this issue is all about making the dental industry a little smaller.
What's the issue with specialization, you might ask? Isn't this what makes the dental world go? For example, a dentist concentrates on treating pathologies. A dental hygienist concentrates on prevention and patient education. A salesperson concentrates on getting the right products to the professionals who need them, and doing that better than others in his or her territory. Office and business managers concentrate on the financial and administrative health of the practice.
It's true, and Apex360 also reflects this reality. We're not out practicing dentistry or trying to make sales-much to the relief of the patients and sales managers of the world. We're here bringing you what you need to know about the industry.
But in the daily hubbub and rush of our professional lives, whether it's as a dental editor, a prosthodontist in clinical practice, or a product development engineer, we can miss opportunities to collaborate with those we're usually competing with, or apply insights from other aspects of the industry into our own work.
Our cover story on the Center for Research in Education and Technology (CRET) speaks to the profound things that happen when competing distributors and manufacturers come together with educators. It's a model that is disrupting what we think we know about dental school and how to train the next great generation of dentists, and we think you'll like what CRET is doing to shake things up.
We also have an article on how Lean manufacturing practices can help improve your workflow, even if you're not in the business of making dental instruments or products. And if you're curious how a product like Loloz is developed and comes to market, you're in luck there too.
We hope you can take these stories and put them to good use, even if it's just enjoying them with a cup of coffee, whatever your role in the dental industry may be.
Warm wishes from the Apex360 team,
Amelia Williamson | Managing Editor
