Please describe the organization of your group – which branches of dentistry/medicine do you focus on? How many employees? What is the history of your company?

Mrs. Serafinova, JPS: Our company was established in 1993 and is currently owned by the three initial shareholders (Mrs. Janatkova, Mr. Janatka and Mr. Parolek) who are still active and engaged in all the activities of the company. As one of the Czech-owned companies, JPS has been selling high quality products to dental professionals in Czech Republic and Slovakia for over 25 years. JPS has been selling OTC products to Pharmacies as well. Currently we have 44 employees, who are split into six divisions: dental, prophylaxis, implantology, ortho, technics and education.

What challenges do you face in your country? How have you overcome them?

Mrs. Serafinova, JPS: Prophylaxis is still in the background in our country. We support activities related to oral health care and we sell the products related to prophylaxis. Today we face a few issues between dentists (Czech Dental Chamber) and hygienists (Association of DH´s in Czech Republic) – the main one is that there is no strict separation between the competencies of dentists and hygienists. This makes the DH´s feel insecure about their future, especially those who own a dental office. Regarding our business activities, we face the usual challenges like strong pricing pressure, competitive activities, sometimes very long delivery times from manufacturers. Those we overcome by providing additional services to our customers like loan devices, premium devices, co-visits to dental offices with our sales team and manufacturer representatives, direct installations by technicians and last but not least by the organization of educational activities (events, workshops, direct trainings by customers) which cover not only theory but on many occasions hands-on as well.

Is there any innovative promotion/marketing activity related to EMS products in the past year that you were really happy with?

Mrs. Serafinova, JPS: We have our own so called JPS Academy where we also involve EMS speakers, organizing regular Swiss Dental Academy courses with the GBT trainers. Most importantly, it would be the periodontal courses with prof. Kovalova where one of the highlights is the application of the Guided Biofilm Therapy protocol in periodontal therapy. The latest edition was organized on the 24^th of January, 2020 in Prague. We hosted 130 participants, including dentists and dental hygienists. Another new and interesting activity is the implementation of the AIRFLOW PROPHYLAXIS MASTER customer testimonials in our JPS Magazine. We also published them in our Facebook page - we clearly see a positive result from these activities.

How do you see the Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT) in your country? How do you use it in your country and how is this concept supporting your daily business? 

Mrs. Serafinova, JPS: I think this question was partly answered in the previous topic. To complete it, I would say that we see a high adoption of the GBT protocol and GBT enabling equipment in the country. I believe it is also critical to the long term success of our initiatives to bring GBT closer to the patients. When the patients will start to speak amongst each other about their experience with this pain free treatment, then the dentists and hygienists will automatically ask for the equipment.

Tell us your opinion about the Swiss Dental Academy?

Mrs. Serafinova, JPS: We support the Swiss Dental Academy because it helps us to convince undecided customers to buy or to identify new ones, as well as offering a high-level medical education. We also support the individual SDA trainings that are done directly at the dental office with an SDA trainers. These offer a more practical hands-on experience as the education is done in real treatment conditions.

How do you see the future of dentistry in your country over the next 3-5 years?

Mrs. Serafinova, JPS: I believe that prophylaxis will become more popular and more requested as patients seek faster, more effective and pain-free treatments. As we’re already GBT ready, we’re looking forward to the future with a smile.

We spoke with: Mrs. Katerina Serafinova, Product Manager division Prophylaxis