A-Dec's territory manager, Joe Minervini, is well-known in West Australian dental circles. However, his commitment to the dental community goes far beyond the provision of quality dental products, as Brooke Evans-Butler discovers.
For the past 30 years, Joe Minervini has been quietly servicing the West Australian dental community.
He began his career working in customer service assistance for Ivoclar in 1989, and over the next 13 years moved into a sales position, selling equipment. In 2002, he joined West Coast Dental as their equipment specialist selling A-dec, and then, in 2008, joined A-dec (a family-owned company committed to giving back to the community) as the territory manager for WA.
Late last year, A-dec joined the Australian Dental Health Foundation as a supporting sponsor. The sponsorship provides a generous $40,000 per year over three years to help ADHF deliver their dental programs to assist disadvantaged Australians. Joe says as a global company, A-dec has always encouraged public service. “We always want to give back to the community and this sponsorship agreement for the next three years is our way of helping the community become stronger, healthier and more successful,” he says.
Joe has been a supporter of St Pat’s since its inception – helping the St Pat’s team with ideas and designs for their oral health clinic. “We thought a lot about the dentists who were all going to be volunteers and decided that if these dentists were going to give their time to help the homeless, the equipment they were going to use had to be easy to use, seamless and not break down,” he says.
“At the time, St Pat’s was given some donated equipment, but we know that a lot of the time dentists donate equipment because they are upgrading, so the equipment was old and tattered. We didn’t want the equipment to break down during a volunteer’s shift, in case they didn’t come back, so one of the important things I put forward for St Pat’s was to get equipment that was new and reliable.”
Anyone who has volunteered at St Pat’s will know how well-equipped the clinic is, and Joe helped to not only supply a high-quality chair but was behind the scenes sourcing the x-ray (Acteon X-Mind Unity), the digital processor (Acteon PSPIX2) the steriliser (W&H Lisa FA) and the handpieces (W&H Synea).
“To do so, I connected with other manufacturers and suppliers around the country and asked them if they wanted to help by donating new equipment or offer heavily subsided prices to get the clinic together.”
Joe is also on-hand to ensure the equipment at St Pat’s stays in good condition, as the first point of call if there are any issues.
As well as giving his advice to dental practices, Joe is invited to OHCWA to teach dental students about the setting out of sterilisation rooms, infection control and dental equipment.
“Michelle Lewis looks after the sterilisation processing at OHCWA and a few years ago, asked me to come in and give a speech on understanding the basics of what an autoclave does and some of the guidelines around sterilisation,” he says.
“I also do a handpiece maintenance program for North Metropolitan TAFE dental assistant students. It gives an introduction to handpieces and the dos and don’ts of looking after them.
“It is important for students to have an understanding of the equipment they are using because if the handpiece drills are not looked after or maintained properly, they will fail and break and it always happens in the middle of a procedure, which is frustrating for the patient and upsetting for the dentist.”
Being part of the dental community’s volunteering efforts is rewarding, but it is also satisfying to work with practices to upgrade their spaces – helping to ensure dentists have the choice of quality and reliable of equipment that suits them best. “I really enjoy when someone comes to you looking for equipment and you come back a couple of months later and an old practice or empty room is all brand new and a functional space,” he says. “I love being able to tell people how we have turned a run-down clinic into something amazing and how much more the dentists and assistants have enjoyed working just by updating their equipment. I like being involved in those stories.”
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