DAMAS was introduced into the United Kingdom in 1994. The system was originated by dental laboratory owners and technicians for two reasons. First, the first of these being the introduction of legislation which stated that each dental laboratory had to register with the MDA (the Medical Device Agency). A requirement of registration was, and still is, that the laboratory must show they had in place a GMP (quality system) covering the relevant sections of the European Medical Device Regulations. This GMP was to be in writing and available for inspection at any time. The DAMAS system was prepared in a manner which ensured that these MDA requirements were met.
The second reason was to ensure that, because laboratories were obliged by legislation to introduce a GMP system, there should be some material benefit for doing so. DAMAS was designed to cover all aspects of laboratory functions and offer means of improving them, the objective being to increase the efficiency, productivity and profit margins of participating labs, whilst ensuring that the laboratory owner was not told how to run his business.
An alternative route to meeting the MDA GMP requirement was to adopt ISO9000. This was followed by a number of laboratories, but because it is a general standard for all industry it did not produce the additional benefits outlined in the above paragraph. It is far more expensive to implement and, importantly, did and still does tell the organization how to perform certain aspects of their business.
A measure of the success of the DAMAS system is that the laboratories who have adopted it in the UK are able to obtain very substantial discounts on their insurance premiums, up to 30 percent in many cases. Also, hospitals which place work with dental laboratories (and there a large number of these) will only select those which are certified. The leading pharmacy chain in the UK offers dentistry on the high street and this group also adopt a similar selection policy for the placement of work.
The UK has a private health care section and a national health care service (NHS). Once again the majority of dentists in the private section select certified laboratories for dental work. It is possible to give many other examples of this type of benefit relating to certified dental laboratories; the certification indicates their commitment to quality, excellence and customer care.
As with all good and workable systems, DAMAS has evolved over the 12 years it has been in existence. It has been amended several times as the industry has changed and it has been proven time and again to bring financial reward based upon the improvements the system introduces into the laboratory.
Because there are other ways of meeting the MDA GMP requirement, laboratories are not compelled to adopt the DAMAS system and those that have done so have the option of leaving the DAMAS certification system or adopting an alternative such as ISO9000. In spite of this option, none have done so because the benefits of DAMAS are so real that laboratory owners are more than happy to display the DAMAS certified certificate and logo and enjoy the resulting rewards.
