Message Boards
Today's Active Topics Today's Active Cases Browse Forum Categories My Recent Activity My Messages Private Groups My Marked Threads My Subscriptions
Today's Active Images Today's Active Polls Most Active Topics Global Townie Map Advanced Message Board Search Message Board Terms of Use

Honest Feedback – A Trip to 3M

View Comments (0)




Dr. Don McNamara says,
Naturally, the 3M folks were wonderful and really rolled out the red carpet for us Townies. The
Innovation Center was a great place for the lecture portions and the tour of the facility was like visiting a science museum.

As with all Townie gatherings, the real meat of the meeting was the opportunity to spend some quality time with great Townies from the U.S. and Canada. When a 3M speaker would toss out an idea or want to brainstorm some concepts for improving a product, there were some great ideas offered by those in attendance. I mean, when you’re talking the pros and cons of CAD/CAM products with the likes of McClure and Fleming, you get great, accurate feedback!



Dr. Tim Goodheart states,
It’s sort of mind-boggling to learn just how many products 3M invented, developed and sells. For me personally, it was very impressive to see just how much time, effort and company talent it puts into its dental division and products. Regardless of whether a dentist chooses to use 3M products, I think dentistry ought to take great satisfaction in the fact that a high-tech, top quality, innovative company such as 3M considers dentistry to be an important part of its present and future and puts a large chunk of the companies’ resources into improving sthings for dentists and patients.



Dr. Tim Burke says,
3M embodies a collection of qualities which are, in my experience, unparalleled. I have prior experience with corporate culture – before dental school I spent more than four years in quality control with Kraft foods, and my ex worked for Lever Brothers while I was in school. While they are obviously both world-class businesses, their R&D departments can’t compare with 3M and its culture of teamwork and cooperation. It is their synthesis and integration of widely disparate technologies that permit them to continually develop and market products while others stand by and wonder what happened.

I’m sure people have talked about the “Trifecta” of bond, cement and materials. That was a huge hit for the dental end. I can see some of the materials that we were sent to evaluate will likewise turn out to be popular – the retraction paste and polishing systems have great potential, and should do well. The “Paradigm” line was a wise addition, in spite of all the razzing it took for confusing nomenclature. 3M has a solid name, and a value line carrying it will likely be accepted more readily than an unknown generic.

I think we really gave them some things to think about – not always what they wanted to hear – but at least it was honest. More, they really did seem to value the input as we spoke to some of them about topics we discussed last year.
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
Dentaltown Magazine September 2025 Read Current Issue Read Archived Issues
Sponsors
Townie Perks
Townie® Poll
Who or what do you turn to for most financial advice regarding your practice?
  
Site Menu
Message Boards Magazine Continuing Education Podcasts Blogs Classifieds Dental News Events Townie® Poll Ebooks Townie Choice Awards
Company Info
Contact Us Advertise With Us Howard Farran DDS, MBA Policies and Agreements
Site Help
Sally Gross, Member Services Specialist
Phone: +1-480-445-9710
Email: sally@farranmedia.com
©2025 Dentaltown, a division of Farran Media • All Rights Reserved
9633 S. 48th Street Suite 200 • Phoenix, AZ 85044 • Phone:+1-480-598-0001 • Fax:+1-480-598-3450