Incisal Edge Announces Awards for Dental Practice Design

For 5^th year, dental lifestyle magazine canvasses country; celebrates offices that unite form, function

It’s hard to say when exactly the transformation from drab, depressing, crammed-in, purely functional dental practices of yore became a thing of… well, yore. But it’s unquestionably true that more dentists’ offices than ever could now double as spa centers, resort retreats, even museums. What all of them are first and foremost, though, are places of healing – dental treatment centers in which oral health (and its attendant knock-on effects on whole-body wellness) take precedence.

For half a decade now, the Incisal Edge Design Competition has been paying tribute to the finest examples nationwide of that very trend – offices that unite form and function in one beautiful whole.

Where is imagination born? Is it in a dental operatory’s humdrum drop ceiling, or the ethereal interior of a dome tent pitched in the wild, community with nature at its wildest? For one 24-year-old student of architecture, the answer is both. That’s the case for Ivan Hanson, anyway – a precocious design talent who, prior to earning his eventual bachelor’s degree in architecture at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania, this coming May, has already garnered four prestigious commendations in his chosen field.

Unassuming despite all the early honors, Hanson, a native of Syracuse, New York, was driven by his own time in the dental chair to envision a practice in which treatment would no longer be a drudge.

“I thought of my experiences in dentists’ offices, how boring the drop-ceiling tiles were to look at,” Hanson says of his fanciful Nest Mobile Dental Clinic, the 2018 Incisal Edge award-winning Design of the Future (shown above).

Photograph of the recipient of the award in the Incisal Edge Design of the Future category, Ivan Hanson, Syracuse, New York.

Shown is the recipient of the award in the Incisal Edge Design of the Future category, Ivan Hanson, Syracuse, New York. Hanson, 24, a student of architecture at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania designed the Nest Mobile Dental Clinic. (Photo Eric Larsen/Incisal Edge)

“In creating a free-form translucent canvas that can help light the space, I can imagine a patient looking at the ceiling and being more intrigued – maybe seeing the shadows of a nearby tree move in the breeze.”

Hanson, who recently earned national recognition for outstanding dental practice design, is among dental and architectural professionals and students featured in the Incisal Edge winter edition as winners of the magazine’s fifth annual design competition, sponsored by Herman Miller.

Annually, Incisal Edge, the leading lifestyle magazine for dental professionals, offers an opportunity for national recognition in outstanding practice design. The magazine’s team canvasses doctors, architects, designers, and students for nominations across five categories, then turns it all over to the blue-ribbon panel of judges. This year’s competition ran from April 28 through September 25, 2017.

Award-winning dental practices for 2018 include:

New Construction Practice (Tie) – Ellis County Family Dentistry, Waxahachie, Texas, and Dr. Seth Atkins
New Construction Practice (Tie) – Rother Dental, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and Dr. Ryan Rother
Repurposed Practice – Platteville Dental, Platteville, Wisconsin, and Joseph Jacquinot
Specialty Practice – Britton Orthodontics, San Antonio, Texas, and Bloyce Britton
Eco-Friendly Practice – Smile Perfection Dental Office, Parasol Building, Tucson, Arizona, and Dr. Sharad Pandhi with design by Mark Harris Architects, PC of Colorado
Design of the Future – Nest Mobile Dental Clinic, and Ivan Hanson, Syracuse, New York

Five existing dental practices receive an Aeron Chair valued at $1,800 provided by Herman Miller, a professional photo session for their practice and a plaque. Design of the Future category winner receives a $2,000 prize. All winners are profiled in the Incisal Edge winter issue.

To be inspired both aesthetically and dentally, view the winning practices in Incisal Edge magazine at: Incisal Edge, Winter 2018. Published by Benco Dental, Incisal Edge celebrates dentists’ achievements both inside the operatory and during their hard-earned downtime. For additional information regarding the magazine, visit: https://www.incisaledgemagazine.com/

The competition’s juried panel from the dental and architectural worlds included: Tristan Hamilton, DDS, M. ARCH.; Joyce Bassett, DDS, FAACD, FAGD, and Phyllis Marshall-Rice, LEED AP, EDAC. Gain motivation from previous year’s winners at: IEDesignContest.com