A campaign of support in response to Hurricane Harvey inspires the nation’s largest privately owned dental distributor to create ongoing channels of disaster recovery efforts for dental professionals.

During the last days of August, Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and Louisiana. Benco Dental activated several paths of assistance for dentists, labs and clinics affected by the natural disaster, including direct lines of communication: 1-800-GOBENCO (press #8 and dial 4278) and  harveyhelp@benco.com .

With the swift onset of Hurricane Irma, Benco Dental aimed to streamline recovery efforts within the dental community. The company initiated a direct line of contact at BencoCares@benco.com and published an online resource guide (shown above) to help revive dental practices, which can be found at: https://www.benco.com/hurricane-disaster-recovery-support/

Larry Cohen, Benco Chairman and Chief Customer Advocate

Benco Chairman and Chief Customer Advocate Larry Cohen invites customers (and non-customers) affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, to lean on his experience as both a disaster survivor and advisor:

“We understand what it takes to rebuild from a catastrophe: in 1972, Hurricane Agnes — at the time, the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history — destroyed the entire downtown of Wilkes-Barre, PA, including Benco’s headquarters. For a small, regional company without insurance, losing everything nearly meant going out of business. It was only through lots of hard work, some luck, the kindness of strangers, and the support of the federal government that we survived and thrived.

When a dental practice or laboratory is the victim of a flood, fire, or similar calamity, our job is to HELP. Job number one is getting your practice back up and running as soon as possible.”

In the field, a team of 12 Benco Dental Service Technicians (shown above and at top), led by District Service Manager Scott Smith, dedicated their skills to recovery efforts from September 4 to 8 on site at more than 100 dental practices in Texas and Louisiana, and delivered supplies to a local shelter serving community members affected by the floods.

Benco Dental associates in every corner of the U.S. continue to offer personal donations to the American Red Cross through a company-wide effort. The company’s philanthropic arm, the Benco Family Foundation, contributed to the American Red Cross as well, and will match employee donations in support of the communities and families it serves.­­­

About Benco Dental

Benco Dental, headquartered in Northeastern Pennsylvania, is the largest privately-owned dental distributor in the United States, offering a full array of supplies, equipment and services to dentists across the nation.  Founded in 1930 by Benjamin Cohen, the company has remained family-owned and focused on its unique mission to “deliver success, smile after smile.”

Within the past 87 years, the company has grown from a single downtown location to a national network of more than 65 regional locations, five distribution centers, and three design showrooms.  Those design showrooms, one at the company’s Pa. headquarters, one in Southern California, and one in Texas, feature North America’s largest selection of dental equipment and technology, as well as a hands-on dental design experience, to assist dentists in the planning and construction of a new office.

In addition to offering the market’s broadest choice of equipment and supplies, Benco features a suite of innovative material management tools like Painless^®, its industry-leading on-line inventory management system, and BluChips^®, dentistry’s original and most rewarding frequent buyer club.  Through alliances with selected Success Services, Benco also offers practice coaching, continuing education, equipment financing, and wealth management services.

Benco, which has been named one of the Best Workplaces in Health Care for the second consecutive year, and Pennsylvania’s Best Places to Work^® for 12 of the past 14 years, is proud to feature a highly skilled team of more than 400 professionally trained sales representatives and over 300 factory-trained service technicians. For more information, visit benco.com or call 1.800.GO.BENCO

For more about the company, call 1-800-GOBENCO or visit ­­­­www.benco.com .

(Photos Courtesy of Scott Smith, District Service Manager, Benco Dental)