CATEGORY 96 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST Dental equipment guru celebrates 50 years! FEATURE – CHAIRS, SERVICING & SPARE PARTS One of Australia’s longest serving and best-known dental equipment technicians, Bill Stoney this year celebrates an incredible 50 years in the dental industry. Alldent, Melbourne founder and principal, Bill Stoney, is also one of the longest serving ADIA members, with 50 years’ membership of the ADIA. He is also a long time A-dec equipment dealer and also installs equipment and assists with surgery design with all leading healthcare builders. Bill was one of the first dental equipment technicians apprenticed at the Royal Melbourne Dental Hospital (RMDH) back in 1974, making him one of Victoria’s – and Australia’s – most experienced service technicians with five decades in the industry. Bill recalls that his trainers – former naval engineers who were extremely skilled and versatile – were skilled instrument-makers who were highly skilled in electronics but were also jack of all trades and also extremely adept in plumbing, fabrication and carpentry. His staff at Alldent are now trained as A grade electricians. “When you’re out at sea literally and something breaks, you have to find a way to fix it as you can’t just drive down the road and buy another one,” he said. Bill was taught that electrical wire had to be run in a circle around a screwdriver, tin soldered and always placed in a screw with brass washer. “Every connection into 3-pin plug had to be soldered for safety. Everything we did had to be done the correct way. If we nicked the insulation when installing a wire, we had to cut off the wire and replace it.” During his training, Bill worked on not only dental chairs, but all types of equipment from large scale plant room chillers and air compressors to high velocity dry suction motors and separators. He worked closely with engineers who designed some of the equipment and this gave him great insights into the all-important areas of plumbing, electrical and suction systems – all skills that Bill excels in and employs regularly during dental installations and repairs for his customers across Victoria. The apprentices and tradesman at RMDH also fabricated a lot of parts and fittings such as clamps for steel flasks. “We used to make things instead of buying them,” Bill says. “We’d do the drawings, make them out of steel and turn them and cut threads into them on the hospital lathe.” This early formal training also added to Bill’s own tinkering abilities honed from working on cars and motorbikes from a young age. Oddly enough, after spending 3½ years at Royal Melbourne Dental Hospital, Bill then did a stint at General Motors Holdens as an instrument maker prior to becoming a Registered Electrical Contractor. From there, Bill worked in various other businesses and electrical companies before finding his way back into the dental industry in a Gunz technical and sales role. He also worked with the School Dental Service, Commonwealth Dental Supply Co., Flavell and Ramsay dental companies before going out on his own as a dental equipment technician. Bill was also involved in a partnership with Bruce Williams and ran a dental equipment company together, prior to Bruce later becoming an A-dec Territory manager in Victoria. Alldent started in a very small way back in December 1988. Growing demand for dental installs in the 1990’s led to Bill going full time on this work around 1992–93. A lot of dentists that knew of Bill insisted that “they only want this bloke to put their equipment in.” There was initially a lot of resistance from suppliers, but when it became apparent that this sort of expertise was in big demand and Bill had a very good reputation for his know-how, reliability, customer service and cost, they started using him. Bill recalls that A-dec which had a rapidly growing presence in Australia at that time was always looking for a new recruit to support its equipment in Australia. Former A-dec Technical Manager, Peter Graham knew Bill from RMDH and sought him out. If a dentist had a problem, A-dec would call Bill to go and fix problems others couldn’t fix. At times, this took Bill all over the country on major installs and as a trouble shooter, thanks to his sound technical background, natural engineering ability and years of practical experience. Bill continues to operate Alldent out of Port Melbourne where his skills and knowledge are still highly valued and sought by those who know him. Alldent has also built a great and highly valued team of specialists, comprising Paul Petkovski who has been with Alldent for 20 years, key customer support and equipment sales specialist, Fiona Banks who has spent over 10 years at Alldent, and electronics whizz, Luke Brundell. Well done Bill Stoney on an outstanding career in the dental industry and as a great ambassador for A-dec in Australia. u
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