Sponsorship and support A-Dec's territory manager, Joe Minervini, is wellknown in West Australian dental circles. However, his commitment to the dental community goes far beyond the provision of quality dental products, as Brooke Evans-Butler discovers. For the past 30 years, Joe Minervini has been quietly servicing the West Australian dental community. He began his career working in customer service assistance for Ivoclar in 1989, and over the next 13 years moved into a sales position, selling equipment. In 2002, he joined West Coast Dental as their equipment specialist selling A-dec, and then, in 2008, joined A-dec (a family-owned company committed to giving back to the community) as the territory manager for WA.
ADHF SPONSORSHIP Late last year, A-dec joined the Australian Dental Health Foundation as a supporting sponsor. The sponsorship provides a generous $40,000 per year over three years to help ADHF deliver their dental programs to assist disadvantaged Australians. Joe says as a global company, A-dec has always encouraged public service.
ST PAT’S ORAL HEALTH CLINIC Joe has been a supporter of St Pat’s since its inception – helping the St Pat’s team with ideas and designs for their oral health clinic. “We thought a lot about the dentists who were all going to be volunteers and decided that if these dentists were going to give their time to help the homeless, the equipment they were going to use had to be easy to use, seamless and not break down,” he says. “At the time, St Pat’s was given some donated equipment, but we know that a lot of the time dentists donate equipment because they are upgrading, so the equipment was old and tattered. We didn’t want the equipment to break down during a volunteer’s shift, in case they didn’t come back, so one of the important things I put forward for St Pat’s was to get equipment that was new and reliable.” Anyone who has volunteered at St Pat’s will know how well-equipped the clinic is, and Joe helped to not only supply a high-quality chair but was behind the scenes sourcing the x-ray (Acteon X-Mind Unity), the digital processor (Acteon PSPIX2) the steriliser (W&H Lisa FA) and the handpieces (W&H Synea).
We thought a lot about the dentists who were all going to be volunteers and decided that if these dentists were going to give their time to help the homeless, the equipment they were going to use had to be easy to use, seamless and not break down. “We always want to give back to the community and this sponsorship agreement for the next three years is our way of helping the community become stronger, healthier and more successful,” he says.
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EDITION 4 | 2022 WESTERN ARTICULATOR
“To do so, I connected with other manufacturers and suppliers around the country and asked them if they wanted to help by donating new equipment or offer heavily subsided prices to get the clinic together.” Joe is also on-hand to ensure the equipment at St Pat’s stays in good condition, as the first point of call if there are any issues.
