Mobile dental practice: Dental treatment on four wheels
Visits to the dentist are usually unpleasant – especially for elderly or unwell people, for whom even getting to the practice can be a real challenge. That’s why vehicle builders are working on solutions to make medical care mobile. This article presents a special case: a dental practice on four wheels.
AL-KO VT chassis in action – the BUMV-Mobil from Blomberg
Medical appointments made easy
Dental care can be a real challenge for residents of care homes or geriatric centres. The dentists at Zahnarztpraxis Clamors from Blomberg near Lippe meet this challenge with a mobile practice based on an AL-KO VT low-frame chassis, known as the BUMV (Treatment and Medical Care) vehicle. This enables them to provide senior citizens with restricted mobility, as well as patients with dementia, with barrier-free and local access to dental care.
In early 2022, the two brothers had the idea to help elderly people directly on site. Their goal was to spare residents with dementia or physical limitations the usually arduous journey to a surgery, while also providing a professional dental service. The Key Account Managers at the AL-KO Vehicle Technology Group quickly set about researching the framework conditions: it became apparent that this was an equally exciting and demanding task, and that the company could demonstrate its flexibility in this project.
AL-KO VT low-frame for individual projects
Variability needed and welcomed
The low-frame chassis from AL-KO VT was ideal for the dentists’ specific requirements. In this case, it sits 300 millimetres lower than a standard chassis, offers variable wheelbases for a light commercial vehicle weighing up to 4.5 tonnes, and can be individually configured for the specific conversion. Working with Marco Jacke, Managing Director of Multitrailer GmbH from Steinheim in North Rhine-Westphalia, a mobile treatment room was developed on the basis of a Fiat Ducato with configurations for axles, track width and total weight that fully meet the customers’ requirements. Special features included an air suspension system, a custom strut for the front axle, and new complete wheels capable of absorbing the payload and significantly improving ride comfort.
AL-KO VT: Partner for special ideas
Dentists on wheels – self-sufficient and mobile
The ability to adapt axles and wheelbases makes the chassis and the independent wheel suspension perfectly suited for a mobile dental practice. “The weight of the vehicle could not exceed 4.5 tonnes, and the dental equipment adds significant weight, which cannot be evenly distributed automatically. It was therefore important to be able to customise the entire vehicle base to meet these requirements,” says Marco Jacke, Managing Director of Multitrailer GmbH.
A particular aspect concerns the fit-out of the mobile dental surgery: as well as being fully equipped to treat patients, and a treatment chair weighing over 150 kilograms, the vehicle is connected to the central computer at the main practice. In addition, it features power and fresh water supplies, and above all a tilting mechanism to enable direct treatment for wheelchair users. The low-frame chassis in turn allows elderly patients to enter via a low entry angle with automatic sliding door, making access to the Clamors brothers' light commercial vehicle much easier.
This provides a major benefit for the two dentists: the mobile station can, if necessary, remain outside a care home for several days to perform follow-up treatments. “The needs of patients are highly individual. To meet them, you have to find innovative new approaches. Bringing a whole surgery onto the road requires careful planning and components that go beyond the standard of a fixed practice. With our mobile dental practice, we can now perform implants or crowns, extract teeth or carry out fillings in the vehicle – just ten to fifteen minutes after arriving at the site,” explains dentist Sören Clamors.
AL-KO VT – chassis beyond the standard
Right solutions for special requirements
Multitrailer boss Marco Jacke goes into detail: “Technology, functions, fittings and electrics for the almost 70 medical devices, such as a heavy X-ray machine, need space and result in a high total vehicle weight as well as an additional length of around 50 centimetres. For that reason, a standard vehicle chassis was not an option here.” Because the patients using the mobile practice are generally not very mobile themselves, steps or a high ramp would pose an unnecessary barrier to access. “The basic idea behind a mobile practice is to make access as barrier-free as possible right up to the last metre,” continues Jacke.
AL-KO VT chassis offer the right solution for virtually any requirement in specialist vehicle construction. And this goes beyond standardised concepts for trailers and commercial vehicles, as dentists Sören and Björn Clamors can now confirm. It has worked so well that the two dentists have registered the mobile dental practice concept for a Europe-wide patent at the German Patent Office, with a second vehicle already in planning – naturally, again based on an AL-KO VT low-frame chassis.
