UV Angel technology helps dental group grow 25% during pandemic

HPA has introduced the UV Angel Clean Air System to Australia and New Zealand, for use in health care, aged care, dental facilities and workspaces.

The UV-C air treatment system reduces levels of viruses, bacteria and fungi by automatically and continuously treating the air to create healthier environments. It is unobtrusive and designed to fit in with any facility’s architectural and clinical considerations and operates 24/7/365 without interruption.

Installation of UV Angel at dental services organisation Smile One Services raised the bar for the standard of safety for staff and patients, and increased revenue by 25% compared with pre-pandemic business.

Smile One Services manages and operates more than 70 dental facilities across five locations in the state of Michigan. Smile One Services was created to help dentists embrace technology and industry best practices without losing sight of the personal interaction with each patient. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the organisation knew it would have to respond differently to keep business going.

“We had a goal to raise the bar for the standard of safety in the dental profession,” Smile One Services founder and CEO Darren Riopelle said.

Dental settings are a high-risk environment for exposure to and spread of disease-causing pathogens, so Smile One Services set out to create a new standard for safety that would protect patients and staff not just during the current pandemic, but from any harmful pathogen in dental offices now and in the future.

Smile One Services knew that thinking differently and finding a robust pathogen control solution was essential to keep the organisation moving forward through the pandemic. While all dental facilities were in lockdown at the beginning of 2020, Smile One Services used that time to determine how they could reopen safely, and hit the ground running as soon as restrictions began to ease.

The organisation started by looking at pathogen control solutions that would serve as the foundation for a new and improved approach to dental office safety but were met with several challenges that extended beyond the pandemic itself.

Smile One Services needed a solution that could meet the following requirements:

Unobtrusive: Smile One Services is dedicated to creating comfortable, relaxing environments for patients. The organisation wanted a solution that wouldn’t get in the way of patients or staff as they went about normal operations and that could fit seamlessly into existing processes.

Safety first: From front-desk staff to hygienists, patients and families, every person at Smile One Services is essential. The company wanted a solution that would actively work to create a safe environment for every person in their facility. It needed protection across the entire office, not just in operatories or patient rooms.

No hazardous chemicals or dangerous byproducts: Many pathogen treatment options make use of hazardous chemicals or release dangerous by-products like ozone into the environment. Smile One Services wanted a different, safer solution.

Scalable: Effective pathogen control requires more than just one approach. Smile One Services needed pathogen control technology that could create a foundation for a larger safety system, and that could scale to protect offices and operatories across the entire organisation.

Effective: Above all, Smile One Services was looking for pathogen control technology that worked. The company wanted technology that could effectively neutralise pathogens at the source level.

After exploring a range of available solutions, Smile One Services decided on UV Angel’s Adapt and Clean Air products. Installed directly into the ceiling and onto shared, high-touch surfaces, these units neutralise harmful pathogens in the air and on surfaces 24/7, 365 days a year, with patented shielded UV-C light technology.

UV Angel and Smile One Services collaborated to determine how many units each office would need based on space, airflow and office layout. UV Angel installed 93 UV Angel Adapt desktop keyboard units and 160 UV Angel Clean Air ceiling-mount units in over 70 treatment locations in just days.

“Smile One Services led the way in responding to the challenges presented in the face of a global pandemic,” UV Angel Chief Medical Affairs and Science Officer Dr Linda Lee said. “They researched potential solutions from a scientific perspective and evaluated available options thoroughly, which led them down a path to UV Angel. The science and data clearly supports the effectiveness of our pathogen control technology, even in the toughest environments like dental settings.”

Smile One Services didn’t want to wonder if their new technology was actively working. All UV Angel units come complete with cloud connectivity so key team members and facility managers can remotely access performance data on any unit, and see at a glance how the entire system is performing.

UV Angel’s software platform enables advanced analytics, allowing the Smile One Services team to monitor organisation-wide system performance, identify problem areas and even glean usability data from operatories that may be under-utilised.

After installing UV Angel’s units, there have been no cases of COVID-19 spread in any of Smile One Services’ 70+ treatment rooms. Just 10 staff members have tested positive since reopening, and none of those positive cases were spread through Smile One Services offices or treatment rooms. This is a testament to the effectiveness of UV Angel’s technology and Smile One Services’ dedication to raising the bar for safety in health care.

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After implementing a page on the Smile One Services website outlining its Smile Safety Assurance, the company saw a 158% increase in new user web traffic compared with the previous year, and 27,894 visits to that Smile Safety Assurance page in just two months. This data indicates that the organisation’s success was largely due to its investment in UV Angel’s Clean Air technology and its new Smile Safety Assurance.