Dentaltown February 2018 - 68

Forbes magazine has
named Utah one of the
nation's best places for
business for six of the
past seven years, and
CEO Magazine named its
workforce as one of the
nation's best, hailing it
as one of the youngest,
fastest-growing
workforces in America.

emphasis on traditional family values, an
appreciation for the arts and state legislation
focused on economic growth."
He also noted that several established
dental organizations including Henry Schein
(American Fork), Ultradent (South Jordan),
Dr. Gordon Christensen's Clinicians Report
(Provo) and SolutionReach (Lehi) have
exposed hundreds of Utahns to the advantages
and benefits of working in the dental market.
"Many of the individuals in these companies have moved on to either create their
own companies or join new companies in
the dental space; it's this that has created a
Utah dental community," Jensen said. "And
many times when boarding a Salt Lake
City flight to the next big dental show, I'll
recognize these faces."

A STRONG COMMUNITY
CONNECTION
Dr. Densen Cao, president of CAO
Group, founded his leading global technology
and manufacturing company in West Jordan
in 2000.
"After receiving my PhD from the
University of Utah, I was fortunate to work
for two great dental community leaders, Drs.
Gordon and Rella Christensen of the CR
Foundation (then CRA)," Cao said, adding
that these iconic influencers in dentistry
along with Dr. Dan Fischer, Ultradent's
founder-all Utah residents-helped
establish a strong connection among the

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FEBRUARY 2018 // dentaltown.com

state's dental community and influence the
dental community globally.
Discussing Utah's assets as a locale
for dental businesses, Cao said, "Utah is
a great place to live and grow a family; it's
business-friendly, with resources for top
talent. It offers low cost in operations and
it has an international airport. This is why
I started the CAO Group here."
According to Kevin Bunker, president
of Henry Schein's North America Dental
Practice Solutions, one way to explain Utah's
mid-2000s uptick in dental companies,
particularly high-tech dental companies,
is to conjure up memories of two tech
giants of a bygone era: Provo-based Novell,
founded in 1979, and WordPerfect, originally
developed in 1979 under contract at Brigham
Young University for use on a Data General
minicomputer. Bunker noted that these
companies created thousands of experienced
developers, managers and even investors to
incubate a robust technology sector along
the Wasatch (Mountains) Front.
Bunker further noted that another reason
Utah produces a large number of dental
technology companies can be attributed
to the success of Henry Schein's Dentrix,
which was started in 1989 and now has
more than 35,000 users.
"Dentrix's founder, Larry Gibson,
demonstrated that the dental market is fertile
ground for technology startups," Bunker
said. "Also, Dentrix was open to partnering
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