Choosing A Dental Chair Can Be Tough

Finding a balance between a chair that is ergonomic enough for your everyday needs, fits comfortably within your practice, and is compatible with your existing equipment can feel overwhelming. Add budget constraints, clinical use and aesthetic preferences to the mix, and you’ve got a real challenge.

As a dentist, you may be familiar with the fatigue or discomfort associated with improper operatory design or poorly positioned dental chairs – and with an estimated 64-93% of dentists experiencing work-related musculoskeletal pain at some point in their careers¹, you are not alone. In a market that is ever-expanding, you need to ensure you are a step above the competition, and there is no better way to do this than by investing in yourself and your own comfort.

Hear from Frankie Robins: a Henry Schein Equipment Sales Specialist whose role is to aid customers in choosing the right equipment for their practice, and provide them with ongoing support and training. With 15 years’ experience, Frankie is here to guide you through common issues faced by dentists when selecting the right dental chair, and how Henry Schein can help overcome them.

^{[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19659711/}

What are the key factors dentists should consider when choosing a dental chair?

Frankie Robins: So, the first thing would be patient comfort. A patient is never going to know how much a dental chair costs – they're never going to know the brand, the make, the model – but they are going to remember how it feels.

The second, and probably most important thing, is your own positioning as a dentist. You need to make sure that you’re in the correct position to treat patients while considering your own comfort. Your back and your body have to last your entire career and if you’re not positioned correctly, you can’t treat patients, so consider how you move around the patient's head and work in their oral cavity.

The next thing would definitely be the back-up and support available. At Henry Schein, we pride ourselves on being able to provide this; we have Service First and a dedicated Service Department, as well as over 50 qualified engineers. Not only do we do the initial installation, we then look after and support the chair for its entire service life. You also need products that are reliable, work efficiently, are easy to repair, and have parts that are readily available in the UK, which is something that we can provide.

Buying the right specification for your practice is also really important, and this will depend on how you work and what type of treatments you are doing.

How do the needs of the new practice differ from an established one when it comes to dental chairs?

FR: When a practice is growing as a business, every patient matters, and every minute of unexpected downtime is going to affect those patients and cost you money, so choosing a chair that's reliable will be the most important aspect of your purchase.

Secondly, your chair absolutely has to look good and be modern. Your patients are going to see your chair and think, “Do I want to be treated in this chair? Is it comfortable? Is it clean? Does it look good?”. Competition is out there: if your chair is worn or old-looking, people will go down the road to the modern-looking practice instead.

When you’re building a new dental practice or where funds are limited, the price of the chair is important, and we shouldn't be shy about that. You can't always have top-of-the-range when budgets are tight. We provide chairs at a lower cost level, such as the Anthos A3 or the Belmont Voyager. You can then invest more as your practice becomes established.