Leading the Charge in Occlusal Technology
WITH DONNA KRAUS, CO-FOUNDER, OWNER, AND PRESIDENT, BAUSCH ARTICULATING PAPERS
Q: Can you tell me a bit about your current area of focus at Bausch?
A:My area is the U.S. distribution company. We mostly concentrate on the marketing and the efficient distribution of our products. We’re instilled with a huge sense of confidence that we are out there promoting products with the longevity and the excellence that's been touted for years.
Q: As the leading company in its field, what does Bausch take into account when developing products?
A: We’re constantly monitoring the needs of the dental community. Dental care has undergone huge transitions in terms of the functionality of products, how patients are treated, and practices’ primary focus.
When a need arises, R&D takes place. We think, “How can we make this work more efficiently, be cleaner, more easily understood, and functional?” It's problem-solving more than anything else. We look for the best possible way to address the occlusal needs of the dental professionals, and this involves chemistry, anatomy, and precision, without compromising the original formula of the paper.
Measuring occlusion is extremely important to patients’ overall oral health because various things stem from our bite, such as our posture, how our jaws align, and how our spines are impacted. When we developed OccluSense, we kept these things in mind, along with the fact that these effects can be determined by looking at dental records. The OccluSense is an exciting, innovative tool with which to measure all of these things. It shows patients what is going on in their mouths and removes a lot of the mystery from the equation.
The OccluSense is also very helpful to the practitioner because it gives them an additional tool with which to communicate important information to the patient. Knowledge is power, and with this product you can have all of the facts instantly. It marks the teeth just like the traditional articulating paper, but it gives dental professionals the ability to save the recordings in the patient's file so that they can compare the new and the old recordings to see how things are progressing.
Q: What do you think is Bausch's greatest legacy?
A: The adherence to their mission. Bausch has never compromised when it comes to quality and customer service. In periods of time where other manufacturers may have looked for other avenues to distribute through private labels, Bausch has never done that. They “stick to their knitting,” and are not trying to do things that are outside the purview of articulating papers and occlusion test materials. Everything stays within that realm. And because it's the only thing that the company does, they put all of their focus on this one piece of dentistry so that they can be the best at it.
Bausch is a family-run company, and I feel very much the support and the relationship with them, through their familial connection with my late husband, Ron Kraus. There's tradition involved, and there is a cultivation of those relationships, something that they do all over the world, truly.
Q: What does the future look like for occlusion testing in dentistry?
A: I can't tell you what it looks like for the whole realm—I can speak only to what I think Bausch will be doing in that sense, and it's going to involve innovation where it's needed. Measuring occlusion is a quintessential piece of dentistry, and I can’t imagine that going away.
It will also involve making our products easier to use, greener, and more efficient, as well as making occlusion more visible to clinicians. Bausch's tagline has been the same since 1953: "We make occlusion visible." The purpose is to give the dental professional a clear approach to managing their patients' occlusion. The added piece with Bausch is providing the educational aspect, and that's not going to change. Innovations for measuring occlusion have come far, and now that we're in this digital age, there are even more technical advances and the future looks bright.
