Agarwal opines that a hospital's job today is not just to provide treatment but also to provide comfortable services.
Dr Sachin Agarwal
Executive Director
Located at a busy place which often has bumper-to-bumper traffic jam during the rush hours, Vivanta Dental draws the passersby’s eye particularly when they’re stuck in traffic with nothing to do but sit and look around. The dental clinic is inside a small and cozy white building with transparent glasses in Kamalpokhari. The ambience of Vivanta gives us the feeling that today’s health centres are turning more patient-centric. “Vivanta means ‘the arrival of good things’ and indeed, one of our mottos behind designing the dentistry in a colorful and spacious approach is to provide a stress-free environment for the patients and give them a pleasant feeling during the time of treatment,” shares Dr Sachin Agarwal, executive director of the clinic.
Ambience and Services
Agarwal opines that a hospital's job today is not just to provide treatment but also to provide comfortable services. “Vivanta also operates slightly differently from most other dental clinics in the capital. Most of the dental clinics are not integrated and don’t provide all oral health services at one place," shares Agarwal."However, we provide the services related to teeth and gums in one place. Therefore, the patients don’t have to woefully go to separate hospitals for other services." he adds.
The clinic deals with all kinds of dentistry including cosmetic dentistry, dental implants and surgical dentistry. Vivanta facilitates with basic treatment such as teeth extraction, filling, routine dental treatment and teeth replacement to hi-tech dentistry such as advanced smile makeover, full mouth dental implants, CAD CAM crowns, laser dentistry, invisible braces, treatment of damaged and discoloured teeth, painless root canal treatment, restoration of decayed teeth, dental crowns, full mouth reconstruction, full mouth rehabilitations and some other services which use new dental technologies.
There are 18 doctors from all fields of dentistry. Agarwal considers the entire team as the strength of Vivanta. "They are all committed to making their patients comfortable during the treatment," Agarwal says, adding, “The team has a holistic approach towards oral health and they coordinate with each other during the treatment of their patients." At Vivanta, the patients don’t have to stroll in different rooms searching for treatment. If they have to consult with another doctor in the clinic, the doctors themselves deal with their team in all cases.
Vivanta was started by 22 founders in 2014 with an aim to provide world-class treatment. There are two radiology centers, one on the ground floor, especially for the disabled and old aged patients, and the other on the first floor for normal patients. “Also, we have world class cleaning and sterilization equipment to meet the sterilization protocol of international standard,” says Agarwal. The water used for treatment is fully treated and the clinic can fulfill all the medical emergencies.
"The appearance of the building might give the feeling to the customers that our services are expensive. However, our costs are affordable for all kinds of clients," Agarwal says. The clinic also has published the charges of all its services on its website.
Dental tourism
Dental tourism is a part of medical tourism - when a person seeks a medical treatment out of his country and visits another country for dental treatment. “We have many patients visiting us from many parts of the world. The patients from foreign countries send their x-ray reports and we prepare the dental treatment plan for them. Many tourists from different countries come to us for treatment," shares Agarwal.
The materials used for treatment at Vivanta are imported from the USA, the UK and Germany and are not cheap Chinese imports. Vivanta uses the same materials used in the countries where dental treatment is considered the best in the world. "Therefore, the dental tourists are highly satisfied with our services and appreciate our hospitality," he says.
Challenges
Started with an investment of Rs 50 million, the clinic does not have any concrete plan for expansion for now. "We are in the phase of gaining good will from our patients now and if the centre here goes well, we will definitely spread out in Pokhara and Chitwan," shares Agrawal. The clinic receives around 300 patients every month. Agarwal shares that though Vivanta is not engaged in marketing and branding, it is gaining publicity through word of mouth.
Agarwal shares that one of the major problems here is that the people are not concerned about oral health care. "We mainly find gum problems in the people of our country. Also, usually when there is a cavity, the people seem to keep it passive without treatment which later leads to chronic problems," he says, adding, "If they treat their problems in the initial stage, that costs them less money whereas starting treatment after the problem becomes chronic costs them more."
For now, Vivanta wants to operate it’s existing centre well by improving in all areas and meeting the expectations of the clients. "If we are able to satisfy our clients here in the capital, then we will definitely think about expanding our services to places like Chitwan and Pokhara in the future," he shares.
