Boyd Industries, Clearwater, Fla, has been selected as the key exhibitor for a new display, titled “Office of the Future,” at the upcoming annual meeting of the Northeast Society of Orthodontists (NESO), which will take place October 6 to 9, 2016, in New York City.

NESO serves constituents in the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and in the Canadian provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.

“We are honored to have been selected to help create this display,” says Adrian LaTrace, CEO, Boyd Industries. “Our goal is to present a ‘dream office’ for today’s practitioners, based on many years of experience meeting the needs of orthodontists and related specialists. We want to offer some new ideas to NESO attendees, and to help them as they plan for the next stage of their practices.”

According to LaTrace, an important factor in that planning is a growing trend toward larger, multipractitioner and multidisciplinary practices. “Recently, we have seen an increase in orthodontists partnering with a pediatric dentist and/or an oral surgeon in one facility,” he says. “While this helps the individual specialists financially by spreading the burden of the operating expenses, having several disciplines under one roof can present challenges in office layout and equipment selection. Our display at NESO will help attendees understand how a knowledgeable manufacturer can provide—and if necessary, design and custom manufacture—furniture and fixtures appropriate to all the practitioners involved.”

In addition to encouraging multispecialty partnerships, the continuous increase in orthodontists’ operating expenses is influencing their approach to making equipment decisions. Rather than going with the lowest-cost option, Boyd Industries finds that practitioners increasingly view these purchases as a long-term business investment. “They expect to buy cabinets and equipment that will provide them many years of trouble-free service,” says LaTrace. “This is not a new concept, but lately we are hearing more questions from doctors about product reliability, post-sales support, and overall performance.”

Another factor driving orthodontists’ equipment and furnishings selections, according to LaTrace, is the growing competitiveness of the field. The number of orthodontic offices from which a patient or a patient’s family can choose is steadily growing. To build a healthy, growing practice, orthodontists need to differentiate themselves from other practitioners within their geographic area, he says, and a key point of differentiation is the appearance and aesthetics of the office.

“The facility needs to stand out both visually and functionally,” says LaTrace. “We’re seeing this reflected in the choices our customers are making in terms of style, color, and finish, and we’re also receiving more requests for customization—pieces specifically designed to meet the needs of a particular practice operating in a particular space.”