Featured Practice: Dr. Peter Haupers on how to build a foundation for success

Working with companies you trust is key to a successful dental practice. Dr. Peter Haupers shares how his relationship with Hu-Friedy helped shape his career more than 30 years ago, and how it’s still an important part of his practice today.

As a young man, Peter Haupers Jr. wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life or what career choice was right for him. At the time, his father worked as a foreman for Hu-Friedy, and that connection gave Dr. Haupers the opportunity to help with maintenance and light factory work.

About the time he finished high school, company owner Richard Saslow saw something in Dr. Haupers, a young man who didn’t have a lot of confidence or direction yet but was looking for part-time work.

He could see Dr. Haupers was a sharp young man who excelled at working with his hands. He suggested he look into a career in dentistry, and Dr. Haupers took that life-changing advice.

“I knew I wanted to work with people,” Dr. Haupers said. “The only experience I had was odd jobs working in factories, where all I did was talk to metal. Dentistry fit all the things I wanted in life.”

That was 33 years ago, and Dr. Haupers now has a successful periodontal practice, PerioCare, in Chicago. He has about 1,000 patients in recall, patients who he treats for periodontal conditions with the most conservative methods possible. These days, he plans, places and maintains more implants in his practice than anything else, and that gives him the opportunity to work more closely with general dentists, something he really enjoys.

As his practice has changed and grown over the years, his strong working relationship with Hu-Friedy has remained a constant. He continued to do odd jobs-from maintenance work to instrument sharpening-throughout dental school to help pay for his education, and now more than 30 years later he still looks to Hu-Friedy for innovation.

Finding the right products

As an experienced periodontist, Dr. Haupers knows what he’s looking for in a new product, and he also knows how important it is to have his team on board. Before he implements a new product or technology into his practice, it has to have the research behind it to support manufacturer claims. He needs to know if it will make his practice money or cost his practice money, and if it will improve the patient experience.

Not every product investment pays off right away, but that doesn’t deter Dr. Haupers if he’s looking at a quality product that will bring improvements to his patients and his staff. That’s why investing in Hu-Friedy’s Instrument Management System was a no-brainer. Not only is it a solution to keep instruments stored and organized, but it handles sterilization and cleaning as well.

“You could certainly sterilize in bags and get along fine, but the investment in the IMS System over time will pay for itself,” Dr. Haupers said. “You’re not buying bags and the process improves the safety of your staff because they’re not getting nicked. It improves the patient experience because it’s cleaner when using cassettes. Even though it’s not an instant revenue generator, it improves the quality of care. When patients ask ‘how do you care for the instruments you’re using on me,’ it’s nice to walk them over to the sterilization area and say here’s what we do. We’re proud of that. There’s a value there that’s not just revenue.”

Dr. Haupers promotes the fact that they use this level of sterilization on the practice website and in brochures. It gives patients peace of mind to know how the instruments their dentist uses are sterilized.

Dr. Haupers also uses the IMS System as a selling point when he’s looking to add a new team member. His staff members don’t have to scrub the instruments after every use, and that means they’re less likely to have to deal with the pain and paper work aggravation that come with getting nicked while cleaning instruments.

Instruments that last

Not only does Dr. Haupers use a Hu-Friedy product to sterilize his instruments, but many of those same surgical instruments come from Hu-Friedy.

In fact, Dr. Haupers still has a few instruments he used during his residency in 1976.

“If you care for them properly they’ll last forever,” Dr. Haupers said. “When you think about what an instrument actually costs, if it lasts you yea r s and years and years and you don’t have to buy another, that makes the instrument more valuable.”

Dr. Haupers loves his tried and true instruments, but he’s also pretty excited about a new Hu-Friedy product-the Luxating Hybrids. This tool enables doctors to loosen a tooth and almost completely extract it without needing to use forceps, which makes it easier to remove the tooth without damaging bone. And that, of course, is key when working on an implant case.

“As soon as I saw them I said ‘wow, I have to have these, they’re so nice,’ ” Dr. Haupers said. “You couldn’t take it away from me now.”

Dr. Hauper s also uses Hu-Friedy’s dentist-developed gingival grafting instruments that are specific for intricate procedures, as well as Perma Sharp Sutures.

“They’re the perfect people to make sutures because they understand metal,” Dr. Haupers said. “We’re suturing very delicate tissue and often ask this tissue to follow curved contours. Careful placement of the sutures can be difficult and the suture needle and material do make the difference. The suture needles are so sharp they slide right through the tissue instead of dragging through, which could tear tissue. They cut right through like butter.”

Always looking ahead

Hu-Friedy products always have been a part of Dr. Hauper’s practice. He describes the company as innovative, and a partner he can trust.

“I have Hu-Friedy sutures and instruments all over my office. The IMS system is a blessing, and the fact they constantly innovate and improve. They could easily stand still but they don’t,” Dr. Haupers said. “They figure out ways to help us that we weren’t even thinking of. They anticipate what we need ahead of us. Like the Luxating Hybrids. Clever idea. And then when you see it you always say, ‘why didn’t I think of that?’”

FEATURED PRODUCTS

Instrumen

t Management System hu-friedy.com

Chairside efficiency is the key to a productive practice. Maximizing this efficiency is possible when the exact procedural setups needed for each patient are always at your fingertips. Hu-Friedy’s Instrument Management System (IMS®) standardizes and combines the cleaning, sterilization, storage and organization of instruments in one integrated cassette system, creating real results that can save your office up to 5-10 minutes per procedure.

Perma Sharp Sutures hu-friedy.com

Perma Sharp® Sutures are made with 300 Series Stainless Steel, the ideal alloy for dental suture needles. This strong alloy composition provides exceptional ductile strength, reducing the risk of breakage and ensuring a sharp needle that is dependable pass after pass. These sutures require up to 20% less force to penetrate tissue, and feature a laser-drilled design to reduce tissue disruption.

Luxating Hybrids hu-friedy.com

Hu-Friedy Luxating Hybrids were designed with thin, precisely angled tips to aid clinicians in preserving the buccal plate during atraumatic extractions. They feature increased instrument control with the ergonomic Satin Steel® handle. Features include improved apical and interproximal access with thin working tips; enhanced oral adaptation with 7 precisely manufactured tip options; easily severs the periodontal ligament with finely honed, sharp cutting edges; longevity and corrosion resistance afforded by hand-crafting from the finest grade surgical stainless steel.

Hand Essentials hu-friedy.com

Clean hands are the single most important factor in preventing the spread of pathogens and antibiotic resistance in health care settings. Hu-Friedy’s full line of medical grade soaps, sanitizers, and moisturizers help with program compliance. Hand Essentials™ Skin Repair Cream helps restore the skin’s natural moisture balance for optimal skin health. Sterillium® Comfort Gel™ hand antiseptic kills >99.999% of nosocomial pathogens within 15 seconds while increasing skin hydration. All of Hu-Friedy’s hand hygiene products are designed for frequent use and are CHG and Latex compatible.