Road Trip 2003 travels NSW

Ten of Australia's leading dental service and supply companies visited six regional centres in New South Wales in late May and early June as part of the Road Trip 2003.

"The premise of the Road Trip was to present a full range of dental products at each location," said a spokesperson for the group. "This included large equipment, clinical products across the spectrum including ortho, implants, endodontics and restorative, plus computer software, patient education and financial services.

"Overall, the response was good and we will investigate making this an annual event. Next time, however, we will change some of the places we visit as some locations were definitely more successful than others. From that perspective, it was a learning curve for both us and the dentists and their staff who attended."

The participants in the show urged all dentists in regional areas to fully support initiatives by the dental industry to deliver information on products and services to the bush, such as the Road Trip, which cost in excess of $50,000 to stage.

"Overall, the majority of the people who attended were very supportive of the events and appreciated the work that went into organising it all.

"There was one group of 'supposed' dental professionals, however, who attended one event and basically entered the function room and spent the whole night at the bar without looking at any of the display. While there is no expectation for people to purchase anything that is being presented, thankfully the majority of the people respected the effort that is made and honour the spirit of the event."

The Road Trip 2003 visited Wollongong, Canberra and Albury in May and Newcastle, Coffs Harbour and Armidale in June.

Participating companies included William Green which showed digital xray systems, intraoral cameras, autoclaves and other equipment; Dentaurum with its range of orthodontic and lab products; Innova presented the latest developments in implantology; Dentavision showed its range of restorative products and dental consumables; Software of Excellence demonstrated the Exact dental software; High Tech Laser presented its hard and soft tissue lasers; Designs for Vision received considerable interest in its loupes and headlights; and Medfin was on hand to provide financial services together with a representative from HESTA superannuation with advice on wise investment for dentists and staff.