VITALI 1953-2023: seventy years of Italian dental units

The year 2023 that is coming to an end was our 70^th year. A very important anniversary, which few companies in our industry have been able to reach, both in Italy and abroad. You may wonder what it means to reach such a milestone today. The answer is far from obvious. To write 70 next to the VITALI logo means having an important part of dental manufacturing history behind us, but it especially means being the only Italian family that has constantly been committed with passion to the work unit around which all dental work is centred. We work in Bologna, in the heart of the Italian dental unit district, and the culture we have developed over seventy years of activity on this complex product combines craftsmanship, professional experience, industrial culture and propensity for innovation, all 100% Italian.

Our history began in 1953 when Lino Vitali opened its first workshop in the centre of Bologna, where it provided technical assistance to the Dental Clinic of the University of Bologna and a number of private dental practices. The 1960s marked the transition from assistance only to production. In 1963 SUPRA, the first VITALI-branded equipment for dental practices, was developed, which was followed in 1968 by UNICUM, our first column-mounted dental unit, and in 1974 by the SIMA line, in which the cuspidor was attached to the chair for the first time. In the 1980s, the company began its first industrial production with ALBA, HALLEY and QUADRIUS, expanding into Italy and several other countries. The key model of the Nineties was ARTEX, combined with the innovative electromechanical chair FLARES. The turn of the millennium saw the introduction of the SD line of dental units, which were our flagship products for years. Then in 2002 the company developed ARTEX EURO, a highly successful dental unit. In 2005 we introduced T5, with a 5-lodging instrument table. This was followed, in 2008, by a highly performing unit: V8. 2014 was the year when our entire product range was renovated, introducing V8 TOUCH, T5 EVO PLUS and T5 MASTER. The latest products were introduced in 2021: T5 EVO PLUS 4.0 and T5 MASTER 4.0.

In all these years, several thousands of dentists have chosen VITALI in Europe and worldwide. We are aware that this is not a particularly significant quantity in a market featuring increasingly global manufacturers. At the same time, however, we know with certainty that our typical customer belongs to a niche of users who are very attentive to reliability, to the real value of dental units and to complete customisation. In our conceptual idea, the functionality, ergonomics, size and management of dental units must allow dentists and nurses to work at maximum concentration, feeling at ease, having no hindrances, always being able to count on safe, friendly and durable equipment. As regards technicians, other fundamental interlocutors in our vision, maintenance or repairs should be linear, precise, decisive.

After seventy years in business, the values that underpin our work are still the same as they were on that distant first day in 1953, namely expertise, precision and seriousness. These were the values in which Lino Vitali believed for thirty years and in which Marco Vitali has believed since 1983. In recent years, two more values have been added: solidarity and sustainability. In 2005 we joined the Overland for Smile non-profit mission. We set up a dental practice on board an IVECO truck which, thanks to many dentists, nurses, and organisers, travelled over fifty thousand kilometres in fifteen years, offering dental care and smiles to thousands of children living in orphanages in Eastern Europe. In 2008 we opened our new facility in San Marino di Bentivoglio, near Bologna, designed ahead of its time with precise eco-sustainability criteria, where the manufacturing area is conceived as a large open space lit by natural light, with green areas both inside and outside the building.

Let’s finish off by answering a question we are often asked: “Why choose our dental units?” For several reasons: because our dental units last a lifetime and offer high quality at a sustainable cost, because we follow our customers closely and are always striving for perfection, because we have been making ‘only’ dental units for 70 years and this is our great strength. Come and visit us and we will prove it to you.