There’s probably no more glamorous address than Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, and that is where Swiss-born master ceramist and technician Vincent Devaud has his office. Smile designer to the stars, Vincent has worked alongside the US’s top dentists to create Hollywood smiles for many famous actors and celebrities for over 30 years.

After training and working in several top Swiss institutions in Lausanne. Neuchâtel, Geneva and Bern, Vincent moved to the United States in 1984. “The US has always been at the forefront of innovation and attitude,” he said. “I felt it was less conservative and more welcoming of pioneers. It’s the country of opportunity.” Initially he worked in a number of labs, concentrating on reconstructive veneers and anterior teeth, developing an interest in porcelain fused to gold, occlusion, full mouth restoration and gradually realised that specialising in anteriors, striving for perfect results, was where his interests lay. It was time to strike out on his own.

Very quickly Vincent decided he did not want to compete on price – he wanted to focus on quality. A brief period of importing expensive Swiss watches had taught him about working with the customer, and he wanted to foster close relationships with his clients, both patients and dentists. “My goal was to climb, which requires smart thinking, a game plan, earning respect and building relationships, something I have now been doing for 30 years,” he explained. “I would rather work less, and produce higher quality results for fewer people for more money than be on a treadmill.”

He takes time to discuss cases with patients, finding out their aims and aspirations, in a non-clinical way. “I look at things from three standpoints,” he said, “esthetic, functional and emotional, which is often overlooked. I try to understand what they really want, and they may not always know that themselves.” With an artist’s eye,

Vincent looks at the person as a whole, taking into account their personality and aspirations. “I do everything in house, creating my own workflow, realising my own designs and milling them myself,” he said. “My quest is to have the tools to offer the very best interpretation of beauty for the patient – what they need and what they want.”

As dental technology developed, Vincent started to look at digital equipment. “There is a danger with CAD/CAM that a mass-production mindset will lead to poor esthetics which was not what I wanted. “I wanted to find a system that would allow me to continue with my art, and combine it with the traditional techniques that I had developed as a master ceramist.”

He didn’t rush into the purchase. “As a former ski racer I learned to study the hill before going down,” he said. “I spent three or four years researching and reading, watching the technology evolve to become more sophisticated before I embarked on it.”

After looking at many systems, he chose Dentsply Sirona for three main reasons:

• It has the complete digital flow from the dentist at chairside to the technician
• It has a long heritage of successful innovation and is a powerful company, constantly working on improving its products
• Reliability – both the hardware and software are of the highest standard, and the support is outstanding. “Patterson has given me great technical support and are always on hand for advice when I need it,” he said.

“I wanted all the machines to be fully integrated and compatible for continuity of data exchange,” said Vincent. “At its best, digital dentistry provides a form of communication that makes the process clear and better, but it can be confusing. You need to understand the system in order to make the best use of it.” He’s also appreciated the strength of the Dentsply Sirona community, and enjoys the dialogue with other top users of the products, sharing expertise and discussing complex cases.

As an innovator, Vincent is always pushing the abilities of the equipment and the materials, striving to achieve ever better results. ‘“The materials are great but I manipulate them further. My work is highly specialised in natural yet beautiful restorations and I am constantly looking to improve,” he said.

He is especially pleased with the results he has achieved using the Dentsply Sirona inLab MC X5 wet and dry milling and grinding unit. “It is unbelievable – I am so happy with it,” he said. “It’s a very expensive piece of equipment which not all labs will be able to invest in – but for me it’s pivotal.”

He added: “The software is extremely powerful and Dentsply Sirona is constantly adding new features and improving it. It offers the ability to be extremely cohesive if both doctor and lab know how to use it. It’s logical, user friendly and consistent.”

As the son of an artist, who grew up visiting museums and galleries, Vincent sees himself as an artist too, and stresses that the equipment is a tool to enhance what he visualises and wants to achieve. “It will deliver exactly what you require of it if you know how to use it,” he said. “It enables me to produce fantastic design and infrastructure, and build the art on top.” The equipment allows him to communicate in detail with both dentist and patient, making modifications easily and also creating something that is reproducible. “The machine is so sophisticated and capable of so much, but what drives it is still the technician’s ability,” he stressed. “It can only give you what you ask for – you have to have the vision and the artistic interpretation.”

Vincent does not therefore define himself as purely digital; describing himself as a ‘hybrid,’ he uses his own interpretation to combine the traditional skills of the master ceramist with the accuracy, speed and precision of the equipment. “I am in control here. All patients are unique and different, so I want the equipment to be the tool that enables me to do what I want,” he said.

He is very excited about the future for digital dentistry. “We are in a time of renaissance,” he said. “We have an opportunity to do work at a very high level. I can make and control things that I could never previously have imagined. The Dentsply Sirona equipment enables communication and work to be quick, clean and precise, over any distance, and it’s created a whole new business culture and relationship. There are endless possibilities; we can do so much more than in the past, though we must not forget the foundation we came from and the skills we learned.”

Combining the expertise of the technician with the qualities of the equipment, anything is possible, said Vincent. “Previously there was always a compromise, but now I can really achieve perfection. I can educate patients and give them choices – it’s not about the price, it’s about the vision.”