Clinicians’ Needs Drive Centrix’s Product Innovations
Compendium features peer-reviewed articles and continuing education opportunities on restorative techniques, clinical insights, and dental innovations, offering essential knowledge for dental professionals.
October 1, 2011
Volume 32, Issue 8, October 2011
Page(s): pp 60
When Dr. William B. Dragan founded Centrix more than 40 years ago, he was looking to simplify the method in which composite materials were applied to teeth, and in the process created an easier, more efficient method of delivering the materials through a syringe. Centrix has been expanding ever since. The company’s new extensive product line was created in response to needs within the dental community, and features a full array of impression materials that were designed with ease of use in mind.
Today, Bill Dragan, son of Dr. Dragan and president of Centrix, is proud of the company’s contributions to the dental impression materials field. “We always start by trying to identify something that’s difficult or tedious in a clinician’s practice, and then how to make it easier, simpler, better, and more pleasant for the clinician and the patient,” says Dragan.
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Centrix has a wealth of in-house experience to draw upon. Centrix CEO Dr. Dragan has been practicing dentistry for more than 50 years, and many employees have worked for the company for upwards of 20 years. Centrix is also allied with a panel of more than 200 clinicians who contribute innovative ideas, offer input, test new products, and discuss which aspects of dentistry they feel need improvement.
Centrix began as a delivery system company making devices “that make it easier for dentists to put material where it needs to be in the patient’s mouth,” says Bill Dragan. Adding impression materials to its product offerings was a natural evolution for the company. Centrix impression tips and impression syringes feature bendable needles that allow dentists to effectively place the material into the sulcus. Centrix’ line of impression materials is designed specifically to be able to flow easily through the bendable impression tips. “I think our design process for our impression materials is pretty unique,” says Dragan. “Most companies don’t design around the delivery system.”
Centrix’ GingiTrac™ is a vinyl polysiloxane (VPS)-based gingival retraction system that Dragan says, “is the only gingival retraction system on the market that is both VPS-based and contains an astringent.” The addition of the astringent, he notes, is innovative. “VPS material alone without the astringent will not dry or shrink the tissue, and it will not stop bleeding,” says Dragan. He also points out GingiTrac’s advantages compared with clay-based impression material. “[Clay-based material] needs to be rinsed out after being placed in the mouth; it does not come out cleanly. Our GingiTrac line comes out cleanly and provides the clinician with an opportunity to evaluate whether the margin is acceptable before taking the main impression.”
Centrix is both US FDA- and European Medical Devices Directive-compliant, and works hard to ensure that its products and services exceed expectations. “We have very tight quality control,” says Dragan. Raw materials and manufacturing processes are closely reviewed, and every lot of material released undergoes a rigorous final inspection before the product is shipped to a clinician’s office.
Beyond its attention to detail in product manufacturing, Centrix strives to provide customers all of the information necessary for success. Along with written instructions, the company features usage videos and demonstrations on its website.
Dragan is enthused about the future of Centrix, and encourages clinicians developing ideas for better products to contact them. “We love hearing from dentists who have come up with something that makes their practice easier,” he says. “We are concerned with solving common problems in a practice. We want to help clinicians develop their own ideas.”
Centrix, Inc.
770 River Rd
Shelton, CT 06484
800-235-5862
www.centrixdental.com
customerservice@centrixdental.com
