STORIES OF SUCCESS

My name is André Luiz Jacon. I am Brazilian from the city of Curitiba, 37 years old, graduated as a dental technician as well as in dentistry. Today I own a dental laboratory and a dental clinic and have dedicated the past 20 years to the dental field. I have a team of 15 coworkers who help me in the dental lab and clinic.

As a child I wanted to be a scientist and was fascinated by handicrafts which were something intrinsic to me, but I had never heard about the dental field.

At the age of 17 I finished high school and was looking for a job to earn some money for personal needs. I got the opportunity to work as an office boy in a dental lab and was enchanted by the profession. I really wanted to learn the job of a dental technician and got an apprenticeship there. My apprenticeship lasted two years and consisted of practical training in the laboratory and theoretical training in a dental technician school. I remember the first time I was able to layer a tooth and I was absolutely emotional when I saw my first work in a patient’s mouth. The path was not easy and neither short, but each challenge was celebrated especially when I became a ceramist which for me at the time was the maximum I could get to.

I fell in love with sculpturing teeth and with ceramics. This soon led me to a deep connection with the dental prosthesis and since the beginning the main focus was to reach the ceramic sector.

To achieve an evolution in my work, I believed in something that needed to be developed based on study and practice, which was skill and knowledge, however there was willpower, determination, passion, perseverance and patience, focusing on the study of dental morphology and facial, material anatomical structures, colour, light, photography, etc … I was inspired by great names like Francisco Mello, Juvenal Souza and Marilo Calgaro whose outstanding case documentation I admired in dental magazines. The dream always was to have the opportunity of using Creation ceramics because the best dental technicians in Brazil worked with them and achieved outstanding results. In 2010 I had this first opportunity to work with Creation ceramics when I met Willi Geller presenting a lecture in Curitiba at a dental school. Beside his phenomenal patient cases, Mr. Geller gave us an insight to his life and his preferences. He showed us pictures of his lab that looks like a museum, his house, his sailing boat on the Lake Constance and his penchant for selected wines. His work and lifestyle were fabulous, and I would say that it was an unforgettable experience which inspired me to rethink my professional and private approach to life. Willi Geller showed me that it pays off to work hard and to reward yourself.  After hard efforts I experienced another level of prostheses being made, ceramic fragments, thin laminates and a lot of stratification on platinum sheets.

With time I dedicated myself to the exclusive use of Creation ceramics in the covering of structures in metal, zirconia and refractory. The change to this ceramic system has guaranteed me productivity and quality with its stability in infrastructures and optical properties that guarantee incredible results.

A new horizon opened up and I obviously had initial difficulty because I was used to translucent dentines, but soon I could see the beauty of the contrast between enamels and dentine and the concern was no longer whether the work would be finished, but with the quality that this prosthesis would be delivered. I can say that the naturalness that can be achieved with this material is “notorious”!

I would like to thank everyone who was part of my history and influenced me in some way. I am very proud to be able to say that I still want to dedicate more and more of my life to the study of dentistry and dental prosthesis and to be able to contribute to the evolution of these beautiful professions. I am forever grateful for the support of my family, teachers, professional colleagues and friends that I made along the way.

Objectives and success are achieved through small and constant steps in one direction and the first step is the most important. Believing in something that does not yet exist is what actually means to dream.

And may there be many more smiles ahead!

My advice:

A beautiful smile is the best gift and we as dental technicians can make a big contribution to it. But beside all efforts, never forget to live and enjoy life.  “Work hard, play hard!” 🙂