Dental Equipment: A Factor for Competitiveness of Dental Practice

Introduction: Maintaining a competitive level in the market of dental services in modern working conditions requires a new approach and updated equipment in the dental practices.

Objective: To analyze the importance of updating the equipment for profitability of the dental practice in the conditions of market mechanisms.

MM: Anonymous survey is conducted among the Doctors of Dental Medicine (DDM) on the territory of the 28 regional Offices of the Bulgarian Dental Association (BgDA) / 2011-2013. Data is processed with SPSS 16.0.

Results: Most of the offices show tendency to be supplied with more modern equipment. The modernization of the equipment is going at an uneven pace for the individual groups. 72.62% of the doctors under 30 and 68.48% from 31-40 years old work with units purchased after 2000. 55.1% of the dental units are Bulgarian-made in opposition to 24.8% which are imported. The data show: 11.21% of participants are working in newly purchased dental offices, 22.66% - with new dental units, 4.79% (59 DDM) - with new X-ray machines, and 54.51% (671) have purchased other new equipment.

Conclusion: Gradual planned renewal of modern dental practices. Enrichment of additional technical resources. Modernization of the equipment in the private dental offices. Increasing revenues makes easily self-finance of the dental practice.