Cover Story: Guy Talks by Dr Guy Laffan

by Dr Guy Laffan

DentaltownUK honorary editor Dr Guy Laffan recently travelled with some other dentists to Germany to visit DMG headquarters, where he interviewed chief chemist Felix Wöhrle

DMG is one of the powerhouses of the dental material world, with products such as Icon, Honigum and Luxatemp, to name but a few. I was fortunate to spend a weekend earlier this year with the DMG team at its headquarters in Hamburg, Germany.

If you haven’t been, I would strongly recommend the trip—so many parts of it were fascinating and equally mesmerising, from the smell of honey and beeswax in the Honigum department to seeing about 50?litres of Luxatemp being processed, and seeing the intricate way the Icon is loaded into those funky applicators. We all learned so much, and it was a truly enriching experience.

Felix Wöhrle

Felix Wöhrle is one of the chief chemists, and he knows his job inside out. Wöhrle was our main tour guide and any question asked, no matter how elaborate, he knew the answer immediately with impeccable knowledge. People like Wöhrle work tirelessly ‘behind the scenes’ so that dentists can work productively and effectively. It was an honour to interview him and I hope it helps to shine some light on this aspect of dentistry. We really are eternally indebted to the likes of him and his whole team. (My Q&A with Wöhrle begins on page 27.)

Guy Laffan: Tell us a little about yourself. where did you grow up?
Felix Wöhrle: I was born in Weinheim, Germany, which is in wine country but pretty remote, so some people refer to it as Badensic Siberia. Later, we moved a bit within Germany and for 6 years I lived in Bavaria, close to a little village called Rosenheim. (For this reason I speak not only English and German but also Bavarian.) After that, we moved to Hamburg because my parents originally wanted to move to Mauritania—but I guess that is another story.

GL: Where did you go to university, and what did you study?
FW: I studied chemistry at the Hamburg University and also graduated there.

GL: Can you give us a brief history of DMG?
FW: DMG—at that time Dental Material Gesellschaft—was founded by Mr Mühlbauer. Funnily enough, the birth of Dr. Wolfgang Mühlbauer, our current CEO, coincides with the founding of DMG, on Aug. 2, 1963. DMG originally had just one product, a silicate cement that Mr Mühlbauer produced in his wife´s kitchen. From these humble beginnings the company expanded, thanks to his good business sense and a feeling for what dentists needed.

Originally the company developed its products exclusively for private-label customers. In 1990 Luxatemp was invented and showed that it can be hard to sell revolutionary products. This initiated the brand business, which has been expanding ever since.

Today DMG sells products to customers in more than 80 countries. Everything is manufactured in Germany in a state-of-the-art facility. A lot of things have changed within DMG but what still holds true is the founders’ strong belief in innovation and quality.

GL: How long have you worked at DMG?
FW: I’ve been with DMG for just over 21 years—and I’m not the only one with a long track record. In the past few years, colleagues have retired who were with the company from the very beginning. When you look at our notice board, you’ll find 10-, 15-, 20-year anniversaries being announced on a regular basis.

GL: What was your background before DMG?
FW: I worked as editor for some publishing companies, amongst them Thieme Verlag.

GL: How long have you worked with dental materials?
FW: Almost from the very start, with DMG. I started out in the scientific affairs department, and 9 years ago I started teaching Dental Materials at the University of Hamburg for dentistry students as an unpaid service to the university.

GL: How have things changed since you have been working with dental materials?
FW: A lot of things have changed, but what always surprises me is that some products, like the gold standards for bonding systems or Luxatemp, withstand all of these changes because dentistry sometimes evolves very slowly. What hasn’t changed is the drive by everyone to develop products that help dentists to perform their work easier, more reliably, and with less stress.

GL: I noticed how complex some of the procedures are—how costly can it be if any of the early chemical development stages are inaccurate? Can they be recovered?
FW: If something goes wrong at an early stage—and with research, not every try is a winner—the cost is not so high. We use small amounts for initial tests and production; product developments that will not perform or meet the expectations are destroyed.

Higher-up stages will be extremely expensive, especially if you’d have to recall a product. The same holds true for products that fail to pass quality control. It’s fortunate that this really is a very rare occurrence.

GL: Any new materials in the pipeline?
FW: Always! Innovation is within DMG’s genes.

GL: How do you see the future of dental materials?
FW: In the distant future, I really see products that will regrow tooth structure. It’s fascinating to see the very onset of this already in research.

But I also think that general access to health care is a challenge that might prove more difficult to achieve than to make the materials to provide the service.