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From his days as a professional football player to becoming a respected figure in the digital dentistry sector, Mario Aparicio has always been driven by a desire to be ahead of the game. By Cameron Cooper
As a former professional goalkeeper who competed against the likes of Argentine football superstar Lionel Messi, Mario Aparicio relied on a range of skills and attributes—strong hands, agility, rapid decision-making and a commitment to hard work.
Those same strengths have held him in good stead during his career as a dental technician and entrepreneur. Now the owner and managing director of APAC Digital Dentistry & Laboratory, with labs in Brisbane and Adelaide, Aparicio is known for supplying and using the latest digital dental technology and software. He has come a long way since his days as a footballer who then fell into the dental industry by chance.
“I came back from playing overseas and we had some friends in dentistry. The funny part is that, because I was a goalkeeper, they suggested, ‘Oh, you could be a dental technician because you’re good with your hands’. So, I was like, ‘Okay, well let’s just try it’,” says Aparicio, who represented Australia in the U-17 World Cup in 2003 before later playing professionally in Chile and the A-League in Australia.
These days, Aparicio leads a team of 12—including his brother Daniel and business development manager Harmony Tisdell—at their lab in Wynnum, Brisbane. There, they specialise in orthodontics, sleep and orthotics products, while balancing conventional wire-bending techniques for retainers with the sale and use of the latest 3D printers.
Aparicio envisages a day in the not-too-distant future when most dental clinics will manufacture their own aligners and retainers using in-house 3D printers, leading to lower lab costs and quicker treatment start times. However, he does not expect to be out of a job.
APAC Digital Dentistry is forging ahead with a multi-pronged business strategy combining sales, servicing and digital designs for 3D printing, plus technical training courses. In many cases, Aparicio says dental technician students come out of college with high salary expectations but less-than-optimum skills. “I really like teaching and talking to people, and I like equipment and lab work. It’s a nice combination.”
Right place, right time
Since purchasing the digital arm of APAC Digital Dentistry at the outbreak of COVID-19, Aparicio has quickly become known as the nation’s leading supplier of products such as SprintRay 3D printers and GT Flex thermoplastics.
He attributes earlier career roles to his unusual combination of technical and sales prowess, having studied dental technology in Brisbane before working at Ancona Dental as a lab manager and then as a regional sales manager for Ultradent. “I was very fortunate that I did my hands-on experience with Ancona. When I finished with them, I came out ready to go.”
A point of difference for APAC Digital Dentistry has been its embrace of 3D printing, notably its supply, integration, servicing and training on highly regarded SprintRay models.
During the pandemic, when many orthodontic clinics were struggling because of a lack of patient contact, Aparicio and his team were able to quickly assist clinicians by printing retainers using digital scans and then sending the retainers directly to patients. “People were basically saying, if you don’t have a 3D printer, ring Mario and his brother and they’ll make your retainers on the SprintRay. So, we were in the right place at the right time.”
Technology and equipment advances
Aparicio has been using and experimenting with 3D dental printing for about 15 years and has watched the technology evolve.
I’ve got to a place where I’m comfortable and we can keep investing back into this facility and ensure that we grow through quality and grow through technology, rather than just having people do more work.
Mario Aparicio, owner, APAC Digital Dentistry & Laboratory
“For simple things like mouthguards and retainers, it used to take us two or three hours to print them, which was just too slow,” he says. “I could have poured them, trimmed them and made at least a dozen before the first batch of printed models came out.”
Now with printers being able to produce products in about 25 minutes or less, they are a truly viable dental tool. In addition to selling the printers, APAC Digital Dentistry provides design and servicing work through its lab, which prides itself on being a ‘powderless’ site that removes the need to use alginate and results in a more comfortable and less invasive experience for patients and lab technicians.
Although SprintRay printers are not the cheapest on the market, Aparicio says he prefers them over some other models because they are self-calibrating and have fewer sensor glitches than some competitors. “You truly get what you pay for in 3D printing.”
Drawing on his attendance at industry events such as the IDS dental trade fair in Cologne, Germany, Aparicio expects the next big industry wave to include a focus on 3D metal printers. He has also become an official retailer in the Australian market for the orthodontic products of renowned German supplier Renfert, whose product list includes the latest intelligent steam-cleaning stations for dental labs and clinics.
Service ethic
A commitment to genuine customer service is also a central tenet of the business. “I have a different approach with the retail side of the business,” Aparicio explains. “I’ve always taught my staff members that we never ask people to buy anything. We talk to them about what they need, how we can help them with equipment and then we leave it with them—and hopefully we’ve made a good enough impression to consider not only buying the equipment but wanting to work with us as people.”
Even as more in-clinic technology becomes available, he is confident that orthodontists and other clinicians will continue to rely on his lab for metal work and other services. “We’ve now just incorporated a 3D metal printer into our lab and that’s worth a quarter of a million dollars to $500,000 a machine—and most clinics are never going to buy one of those. We print the framework in metal and then bend it, too. That’s the new age.”
On the tech front, APAC Digital Dentistry also uses YOAT orthodontic wire-bending technology the delivers precision in the form of robotically bent finishing archwires. Complementary software automates the process for orthodontic case set-ups, allowing digital indirect bonding whereby the clinician can accurately place the brackets for teeth using a computer.
“The printer then prints out the jigs that hold the bracket, which means there’s no guesswork. So, clinicians can do all of that stuff that the printer can do, but for the things that the printer can’t do they can use our lab. This means we have a true orthodontic one-stop shop.”
Kicking goals
As a World Cup game plays out on the TV in the background during the LABMAG interview, Aparicio admits that he does not watch the sport too much these days. The truth is that he is now focused on other goals, mainly business related.
Reflecting on his latest career success, Aparicio pays tribute to mentors such as Deb McFarlane, a former Ancona colleague who later worked at his Wynnum lab. “She taught me everything at Ancona about being a dental technician and that this work could be fun.”
Having recently turned 40, he is confident the business is in a good space, and he looks forward to the next phase of innovation and growth.
“I’ve got to a place where I’m comfortable and we can keep investing back into this facility and ensure that we grow through quality and grow through technology, rather than just having people do more work. If we do that, we can deliver forward-thinking workflows for our clinician clients.”
