Vitra Clinic has invested in digitalisation without compromising its personal links with patients
Vitra Clinic celebrated its three-year anniversary in February, having opened at the Atrium building in Lagoa on February 22, 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the clinic has expanded its services, doubled its size, and invested in digitalisation, all without compromising one of its most important strengths – its personal connection with its patients.
“This project has exceeded our expectations in such a way that we had to expand our clinic and buy the space that was located next door,” said Sérgio Tavares de Sousa, the clinic’s co-founder, and a Doctor of Dental Surgery.
“We felt the need to do so because several of our health professionals had their schedules fully booked and there was demand for more consultations,” he added.
The clinic’s success has been built on its varied customer base, which includes local Portuguese residents as well as foreigners and tourists.
“We have, for example, a large base of Swedish customers, who learn about us through word-of-mouth. We also have many French and, of course, British patients,” co-founder Ana Pragosa said.
Implantology – the area of dentistry involving the placement of dental implants – remains one of the most sought-after services at Vitra Clinic.
“We have achieved an interesting mix of experience – we have been doing this for over 20 years – innovation and a desire to use the latest technology to improve our services in this area. That is why removing teeth that can no longer be kept and replacing them with implants on the same day, which is something we have done for many years, is a process that we have been improving, offering an increasingly comfortable experience and extremely high success rates, which is why it remains our main service,” Sérgio Sousa explained.
The clinic has also worked hard to make itself a welcoming environment for children, having created a special waiting room for its younger patients and having adapted a consultation room specifically for them.
“We have added to all this services such as speech therapy and general medicine, not to mention other areas such as dental hygiene. Each one of us stands out in one area,” Ana Pragosa added.
Vitra Clinic has also been able to take a “big leap in terms of digital dental medicine and digital planning.”
“For a series of procedures, we use a very small device which is barely noticeable in the patient’s mouth and can capture hundreds of images per second, generating a 3D image,” Sérgio Sousa said, adding that this latest technology has helped replace older methods such as silicon moulds.
Ana Pragosa elaborated further: “What this means is that we can obtain a 3D image of what a patient’s mouth will look like once the treatment is completed.”
As Sérgio Sousa explained, this facilitates communication with patients. “Instead of having the idea solely in our head, we can show patients the expected result. It makes communication much easier and interactive.”
Despite investing in the digitalisation of its tools, Vitra Clinic remains very much focused on its personal relationships with patients.
“We are very digital in technological terms, but, in human terms, we are as analogue as possible. I mean this in the sense that we value our human relationships in an area of medicine that still seems scary for some people but no longer needs to be,” Sérgio Sousa added.
Vitra Clinic is located at Rua Jacinto Correia, Ed. Atrium, 8400-398 Lagoa | 282 353 285 | info@vitraclinic.com
