Ivoclar Vivadent, Inc. is pleased to announce that its Optra Accessories have received a Gold 2005 Medical Design Excellence Award (MDEA), which was presented during the Medical Design & Manufacturing East Conference and Exposition on June 14th at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Optra Accessories, which were developed in response to market demands for products that enhance the clinician’s ability to easily and predictably place today’s highly sought-after direct composite restorations, is a specially designed line of contact point instruments, selectively thin matrix bands, composite sculpting and modeling instruments, and lip and cheek retractors.
The MDEA competition is organized and presented by Canon Communications and is the only awards program that exclusively recognizes the contributions and advances in the design of medical technology. Specifically, the program recognizes the achievements of medical device manufacturers, their suppliers, and the many people behind the scenes—engineers, scientists, designers and clinicians.
As such, the Optra Accessories were evaluated on the basis of their design and engineering features, including the innovative use of materials and user-related functions, and received their award in the category of dental instruments, equipment, and supplies. The awards are offered in 10 categories and may be offered in additional subcategories as determined by the jurors.
“Everyone at Ivoclar Vivadent is very proud of our achievements and honored to be recognized by the MDEA judges,” commented Ivoclar Vivadent President Robert A. Ganley. “It represents our achievement of delivering products that contribute to the realization of productivity, performance and esthetics.”
The MDEA competition is open worldwide to companies and individuals involved in the design, engineering, manufacturing, or distribution of finished medical devices or medical packaging. Entries were judged by an impartial, multidisciplinary panel of third-party jurors with expertise in biomedical engineering, human factors, industrial design, medicine, and diagnostics, and were selected by the editors of Canon’s medical industry publications.
ABOUT OPTRA ACCESSORIES
Optra Accessories facilitate precise composite placement, creation of properly contoured contacts, and quick and easy access to the working area. Specific Optra products include: the Optra Contact instruments used during the placement of Class II composite restorations to achieve tight and properly contoured proximal contacts; Optra Matrix bands that assist in the creation of precise, anatomically shaped contact points in direct, multi-surface Class II restorations; Optra Sculpt composite sculpting and modeling instruments that enhance the clinician’s ability to more easily place and manipulate all composite materials; and the Optra Gate 3D latex-free lip and cheek retractors that offer increased visibility and accessibility to a much larger working space during dental applications.