We recently completed the industrial design for a next-generation ultrasonic dental scaler, which included innovative features to improve operator comfort and reduce operational strain: a wireless, tap-on foot control with latching technology to ease leg strain, modes that auto-cycle between important, commonly-used functions, and a hands-free boost activation.
To emphasize these improvements, our client wanted a new look; one that would clearly show, "This is new. This is better." We immersed ourselves in dental offices to identify the most desirable characteristics of dental equipment and conducted interviews - supported with renderings and painted models - with clinicians in those offices and at trade shows in Chicago and London. We redesigned the information center on the front of the scaler to include improved iconography and updated mode indicators with new backlighting and dead-front capabilities. We worked in close collaboration with 3rd-party manufacturers to hone color and light masking. The result was a modern and mature look appropriate for a product with a 40-year history from a company that continues to innovate. In addition to the updated industrial design and user experience, we also helped our client solve a long-standing problem with some existing dental scalers - the handpiece holder would loosen over time, increasing the likelihood of dropped and damaged handpieces. We studied the behaviors of clinicians when docking and undocking the handpiece and benchmarked the physical forces applied during those acts. We were able to isolate the cause of the problem, redesigned the holder to eliminate it, and worked with manufacturers to implement the improved design. The result was a new mechanical design that solved the problem, maintained the visual design integrity, and could be retrofitted onto existing field units.