Page 58 - Dental Practice Vol 17 No.5_

exclusive interview

A CHAT WITH SAMEER MERCHANT

For over 20 years Sameer Merchant has been a visionary and
technology driven leader providing essential insights for his
company Laxmi Dental’s growth and expansion. From bringing
pioneering innovations in dental lab technology to introducing
the generation 1 range of Zirconia, Sameer has been known to
bring the most precise and accurate dental restorations to the
Indian dental fraternity. Graduated as a Certified Dental
Technician from the prestigious SDM college, Dharwad, he has
also been a Key Opinion Leader for various leading internation-
al brands and corporates. Dental Practice South Asia spoke with
Sameer about his journey, his plans and the emerging trends in
the industry.

1. From 2 employees operating out of a small space to 1500 plus
employees in a 10,000 square feet facility, do tell us briefly
about this inspiring journey.

Mr. Rajesh Khakhar, my uncle and my mentor started this par-
ent group of Laxmi Dental in 1989 and went on expanding it
gradually by identifying missing gaps in the dental industry and
hiring the right people to do the right things.
With his business acumen in 1999, he inspired me to be a
dental technician and therefore I enrolled for the CDT program
at SDM college of Sciences, Dharwad. I graduated topping my
batch following which he mentored me to gain international
exposure. I had the opportunity to travel to Japan and seek
knowledge under Mr. Kazunobu Yamada of Noritake. After
which I headed to Germany to learn and understand the func-
tional aspects of dental labs as a whole. And the journey of learn-
ing continued with well know material and machine brands in
the dental fraternity. My varied experiences from across the
globe allowed me to learn the best of both worlds which includ-
ed dental aesthetics and technology.
With this, Illusion branched out in 2002 and we embarked on
our vision to be a provider of best dental restorations using
world class materials and technology forthe Indian dentists. The
constant learning and evolution along the right lines continued
which eventually resulted in our growth and expansion from 2 to instantly. This results in easy lab communication and it overall helps
1800 employees. you achieve accurate results which otherwise is a shortcoming for
most analog cases.
2. It is no secret that your company was one of the pioneers in
digital dentistry. What is your take on analog versus digital 3. Over the past few years, 3-D printing technology in dentistry has
dentistry in terms of aesthetic perfection? advanced at an incredible rate. What trends do you see in the
future?
Digital is here to stay and analog is what we have been doing for 3D printing is an integral part of digital dentistry and as stated it’s
years. Digital dentistry is going to serve as a huge platform for all here to stay. The demand for 3D printers is proportional to the sale of
dentists in the next 5 -10 years. intraoral scanners. Hence, with the intraoral scanner market bloom-
In terms of aesthetic perfection, both techniques do a good ing rapidly, 3D printers are also on the rise. By serving as a produc-
job. Some dentists take excellent physical impressions, however, tion solution for dental labs, 3D printing has already made way for
digital techniques help simplify processes and save time and printing 3D models, temporaries, surgical guides, splints, and with the
effort. For instance, AI-aided Software’s help review cases technology evolving I am sure it can be applied for fabricating per-

58 Dental Practice // May-June 2021 // Vol 17 No 5