Open Writing

In 1958 Hutchinson Cottrell called again, saying that he had a good new dental turbine that he was going to introduce at the London Dental Exhibition in Central Hall Westminster, and someone had offered him another. He could not manage to introduce two new turbines. Would I be interested?

So we went across to Paris together and viewed this new turbine. It was at the time that high-speed turbine handpieces were quite new to dentistry. They were all sophisticated, electrically operated with control boxes. This one had been designed by a young Italian dentist, Dr. Bruno Sandri. It had no electrical controls and was immensely powerful. In my ignorance, I said, “Yes, it looks like my sort of product as something different, simple and sensibly priced.”

So I rushed around, borrowed a compressor, obtained the services of an additional demonstrator and arranged for Dr. Bruno Sandri to come over for the show. It was a sensation, and we sold nearly 1,000 at the show, with Dr. Sandri demonstrating non-stop on a cow jaw that I had obtained from a butcher.

Bruno has become a close friend since then, and we still maintain contact. His mother came over with him and acted as his business manager until about 1990, when she retired and he returned to dentistry with his brother-in-law and son.

With this exciting new product, I had to engage new staff, and it took a while to find the right people. The first ‘right one’ was Ron Crowdy, who started as the bloke repairing the handpieces and ended as a director, looking after our growing equipment business.

It was not long after the introductory exhibition when I heard that one of the major dealers was warning their salesmen and customers to avoid the Sandri turbine because if it went wrong it would have to be returned to Italy for repair. This was the best thing that happened, since it encouraged me to set up the finest handpiece repair service in the world (at that time) with immediate availability of loan handpieces.

We worked long hours and travelled the country to demonstrate the Sandri at shows in many places. At that time we still did not have a car, and so if going to a trade show in some distant place, it meant hiring a taxi to the relevant London station and lugging our heavy Romac Compressor that provided the air to operate the Sandri.

One day a Scottish independent dental engineer called to collect some parts to enable him to install a Sandri. We chatted and thus Jack Cook joined our team as the Outside Engineer. He remained an independent operator and every month submitted his account. Eventually his son Gavin joined us as an engineer. The first tragedy then hit us when Gavin was travelling north by car to do a job and was killed in a car smash.

Gradually the business grew. A move to business premises in Hendon followed, with the building of a wonderful team which needed two further moves to ever-larger premises in the Finchley area and a gradual assembly of 40 hard-working colleagues.

The one who backed up everything was Hilde, who kept the books until nearly 1990 and saw that everything happened when I was away selling. Then there was the wonderful Irene Cahn, who also did almost everything until she died some years later. A dental technician, Bill Morgan, whom we engaged for an exhibition, later joined us and ended up as our Sales Director. It was always a ‘people’ company, and everyone worked long hours.

Our Business Approach

The philosophy was to establish products that made important improvements. Another winner was a dry heat steriliser that gradually encouraged the dental profession away from water boilers that did not sterilise. We were laughed at when we introduced it, with our first order on the factory for 1000 pieces. As a knowledgeable dental man said, “Should manage to sell two or three a year.”

Before long we had sold 13,000. Then on to an ever-growing range of disposable products that started with needles. Here again, we were laughed at for trying to sell the impossible. A first order on the factory for one million ended with sales of many million a year.

The name we registered for our growing range of disposables was SOLO, which served us well.

Then I heard that a friend John Smith, a second generation dental trade man whose father G O Smith had been a good friend of my father, was returning from an important job in South Africa, since his health was sub-standard. So I suggested that he join us, and he became a key salesman of the company until sadly he died about five years later.

Two small manufacturers were bought on the way and an export business created. Thus we arrived at 1979, having grown from the smallest dental supply company to one of the largest. By now my days out selling to dentists in places like Reading and Woking, with bag samples in my hand and using the train service to take me there, had come to an end. There was just not enough time, and there were now others who did that job better. There was also the beginning of the move away from the National Health Service to Private Dentistry.

Ideas That Failed

It must not be imagined that everything I touched was a success. One that failed was our venture into Mercury Control. It began to be realised that silver alloy mixed with mercury to produce amalgam produced mercury vapour at the time of mixing. This was a health hazard for those working in the treatment area.

A large container was produced in which the mixing, either by hand or with a mechanical mixer, was undertaken. A tube carried the vapour out of the room into the open air. Idea good - success minimal. Finally we managed to sell our large stock of units to someone who planned to adapt and use them for a different purpose. It brought us in pennies but cleared the warehouse. There were a few other ideas that failed to work out well.

When National Health dentistry was at its peak, there had been a great inSpirfireflux of Australian dentists because earnings were easy and quick. Most were very good, but a few came over for two years high pressure earning and returned home before being caught by the taxman.

The term ‘Australian Trench’ came into use. This was the drilling of a trench round all the back teeth, uppers and lowers. One drilling operation and one filling operation, but a fee could be claimed for filling up to 16 teeth.

I once was in a surgery waiting for an Australian dentist to finish such an operation - which did not take long. At the end I must have looked shocked, so he told me the patient was caries-prone and the teeth would have needed restoration eventually. Not surprisingly he ordered diamond drills (burs) from me. They cut faster and lasted longer.