In a sad sign of the times, repossessed dental equipment has become increasingly prevalent at NorthBay Networks, a California company that specializes in equipment recovery and remarketing.
The company, which grew out of the dot-com bust of 2001, can tell about six months in advance how an industry is faring based upon how much and what kinds of repossessed equipment winds up in their warehouse, according to a story on KPIX-TV in San Francisco.
These days, according to Doug Cain of NorthBay Networks, the company is seeing more and more dental equipment from dentists' offices that have gone under.
"We see five, six, seven practices a month," Cain told KPIX-TV. "And then also just some one-off pieces of equipment ... a $100,000 crown-making computer that is worth $30,000 now."
In addition to the tough economy and its impact on what people are spending on dental care, some dentists right out of dental school go overboard in launching their practices, spend too much on equipment for their offices and operatories, Cain said.
"So they're thinking big, but that's slowly coming to an end because in the dental market right now it's very, very tough to keep and hold patients," he told KPIX-TV.
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