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EDC in media
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The Prague Post, December 2004
Dental care with the customer in mind
EDC uses new technology to offer Western-style services
By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
2nd December, 2004
Of all the areas that have been slow to change in the Czech Republic, the medical field may be the slowest. While pockets of modern medical practice have blossomed, many clinics and doctors' offices still operate much like they did under communism -- which is to say, with brusque service, long waits and very little accommodation for foreigners.
This makes walking into the European Dental Center (EDC) more than a breath of fresh air. It's another world, a haven of hospitality and contemporary dental care one wouldn't expect to find anywhere east of Paris or Berlin, much less on Wenceslas Square.
In fact, walking into EDC is not like walking into a dental office at all. A law firm perhaps, with high ceilings and parquet floors and a bright, fashionable interior. Or an art gallery, with paintings on the walls and, at the moment, large-format color portraits by photographer Jadran Sedlik. There are none of those dentist office smells or cluttered countertops of scary looking utensils.
And here's the kicker: EDC is run not by a Western entrepeneur, but by a Russian emigre. Evgeniia Shterenberg is originally from Kiev, Ukraine, and while she may not have been born with capitalism in her blood, she has absorbed the lessons of the free market with remarkable acuity. Lesson number one: The customer comes first.
"When patients go to any clinic, there's always a certain amount of stress," she says. "Here, we try to have a friendly atmosphere with no stress. I want the best conditions for our patients, everything painless. We run this clinic like a family."
There's a strong earth-mother quality to Shterenberg, a personable woman who shows off her staff doctors as proudly as if they were her sons. But that's coupled with a sharp business sense and a determination to be in the forefront of dental technology. If there's a machine that can do the job better or with less inconvenience for the patient, Shterenberg has to have it.
X-rays, for example, are done at EDC by a panoramic digital X-ray machine that exposes the patient to 10 times less radiation than a standard dental x-ray machine. It's in a dedicated room where the patient stands, steadies himself on a chin holder and hand grip, then remains motionless as the camera runs on a 180-degree track around his head. Seconds later, a full X-ray of his entire mouth is up on an adjacent computer screen.
"If you're going home and want to see your dentist in the United States or the UK, we can send him this computer file so he'll have these X-rays when you get there," says EDC staff dentist Yves Bregeaut.
Taking impressions for crowns or bridges is also a thing of the past; a laser scanner can do that better and with less bother for patients. Invisible braces, teeth whitening -- name the service and Shterenberg can tell you all about the latest technology and when she's going to get it, if it's not already in her office.
"My philosophy is that we must always make something new," she says. "There is always some way to improve conditions for the patients."
An eye for innovation
Shterenberg is not a dentist herself, nor a product of medical training. She's an architect by profession who did a lot of state-sponsored work in the Soviet Union, specializing in spas. "I was very happy as an architect," she says. "As a citizen, no. But as an architect, I was happy."
Her husband's business interests brought them to Prague in 1996. A few years later, a French medical entrepreneur, Andre Kobuloff, told Shterenberg he wanted to open a dental clinic in Prague and asked her to run it. She did everything from design the space to hire the staff, which at the moment includes a former EDC intern from Charles University, Petr Kolar. He came to work for the clinic part-time as a student. When he graduated, Shterenberg invited him to stay on. By all appearances, it's been a good match.
"Here, you can take more time with the patients, and there's all the modern equipment that I couldn't even imagine in a standard Czech dental office," Kolar says. "Also, people speak different languages, and you get to meet patients from so many different places. This has been a great experience for me."
EDC offers service in five languages: Czech, English, French, German and Russian. "People on our staff speak some Spanish and Italian, too," says Shterenberg. "And if you speak Ukrainian, we'll find someone who speaks Ukrainian."
Needless to say, services like this do not come cheap. An initial visit for a consultation and panoramic X-ray costs 3,000 Kc (about $122). A full cleaning costs the same. Fillings cost 1,500-4,000 Kc, and root canals 2,700-5,700 Kc, depending on how much work is involved.
Dental costs are often not covered by employer health insurance plans, and, when they are, reimbursement can be painfully slow. To address this Shterenberg has developed financial services with the same eye for innovation that she's brought to the medical side of the operation.
For Czech patients, she's set up a payment system through Essox, a financial services firm. It's essentially the same as any monthly payment plan, except that for EDC patients Essox charges no interest. Shterenberg is currently talking to Ceska sporitelna's Expat Center about offering similar arrangements to foreign patients. Currently, Expat Center members get 50 percent off their first visit (consultation, panoramic X-ray) to EDC.
Anyone who's ever suffered a toothache or dental work gone bad can also be reassured: EDC offers 24-hour emergency service, no matter what language you speak or when you call.
"One of our doctors will meet you here in the office, on the weekend, a holiday, whatever," Shterenberg says.
This is EDC's fourth year in business and one thing seems certain about the clinic's future: Whatever you can say about it today will be different in six months. Shterenberg is not the kind of person who will ever let herself, or her staff, stagnate.
"The people here like to work. They like people, and they like to study — we never stop," she says, adding the phrase that has become her personal mantra in an unlikely but highly successful second career:
"We must always make something new."
Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com
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