Discus Dental is a leader in whitening, restoratives, oral hygiene and endodontics. RKS has been helping Discus achieve its business goals, since they were a start-up more than 15 years ago. The most recent collaboration between Discus and resulted in Nuance, a composite delivery system designed for use by dental professionals when performing tooth restorations or filling cavities.

An improved extrusion syringe delivers a superior material that replaces amalgam, resulting in benefits to both the dental professional and the patient as well.

Discus’ chemists engineered the Nuance composite material to furnish dentists with the physical and technical properties required for beautiful, long-lasting, and natural-looking results. While Discus had great new chemistry, past attempts had shown the benefits could become compromised by not fully designing the user experience and paying close attention to the needs and aspirations of patient, dental assistant and dentist simultaneously.

To develop user insights necessary to ensure a successful offering, the RKS design team first leveraged extensive research and ethnography analysis into the dental operatory itself. The team then mapped and benchmarked competitive offerings, brands and target consumer groups to identify pain points, and set the stage for innovating an improvement in the ease and efficiency of the experience.

The pain point analysis and “day-in-the-life” scenarios showed the dental operatory is a dynamic, cost-intensive and highly distractive multi-tasking environment. Interviews with dental assistants revealed they are typically asked to dispense composites while the dentist is working with a patient, and there are many distractions to doing this accurately. Caps get lost and expensive inventory gets ruined. As unused or wasted material represented a significant cost (the material costs roughly a third as much as 24K gold by weight), dentists desire the absolute minimal volume necessary for a given procedure.

Control and accuracy in the delivery system was essential but not, however, available with the crank-and-screw delivery devices that dominated the market. While measuring the forces required to dispel the material, the design team found them to be difficult to use, especially with gloves on. Metering was inefficient; waste was inevitable.

The whole delivery system was reconsidered. Control and precision metering were of paramount importance. Not only was it necessary to be able to accurately dispense exactly the amount of material required, but also to know at a glance how much material was remaining in the syringe. To this end, a calibration system was developed that dispenses a uniform “unit dose” of exactly 0.1 gram per half turn. Furthermore, to ensure that half turn is executed precisely, an audible and tactile click is produced as the user completes it. Guesswork is completely eliminated. The plunger end was transformed into a calibrated indicator, an at-a-glance gauge of remaining material. Thread pitch and handle design were ergonomically engineered for maximum leverage and control as well as user comfort. The attached cap design prevents loss while better protecting the light-sensitive material. The overall architecture allows standing vertically and prevents rolling when laid on its side, as well as ample labeling surface for quick recognition of the specific material shade within.

Multi-tasking dental professionals can now count clicks as they accurately dispense NuanceTM—without even looking. The syringe provides easy, efficient operation, instant indication of remaining material, and enhances the operatory with a professional aesthetic. Despite the often-chaotic environment of the dental office, the new design ensures accuracy, economy, and prevents mistakes. NuanceTM has changed the game by holistically incorporating the needs and aspirations of all participants, and has been recognized with a Spark! and Silver Industrial Design Excellence Award in 2011.

Awards:

Nuance: Red Dot (2012), GOOD (2011), IDEA-Silver (2011), Spark! Overall Competition Winner (2011)

Zoom!: IDEA Bronze (2003), ID Annual Design Distinctions (2002)

Related Links:

Core77 — Nuance, New Delivery System Filling the Gap for Dental Assistants