A-dec

When you truly care, something interesting happens. It becomes your passion. You find yourself taking the initiative and giving it your all. Fearless commitment. A sense of purpose. All that inspiration to get it right helps explain the values shared by A-dec founders Ken and Joan Austin.

It all started a half-century ago. While on a picnic, a barely-employed Ken mentioned to his wife Joan how air-vacuum technology could be used to create a simpler and more compact oral evacuator device.

There could be a business in it, Ken figured. If they dreamed big, maybe one day they could support the family.

With the highspeed air drill revolutionizing dentistry in the mid-1950s, the oral evacuation equipment of the day fell quickly behind the times. Evacuators were clumsy, constructed with pieced-together components, and couldn't suction fast enough.

Seeing the opportunity, Joan was immediately intrigued by Ken's idea. She encouraged him. "Why wait?" she said. "We'll eat bread and beans if we have to."

By the next day Ken was machining a model for his oral evacuator prototype. In Ken's mind, his air-vacuum system (AVS) would be more reliable and less expensive than what was currently available.

Within months—on Nov. 9, 1964—the country's largest dental manufacturing company S.S. White agreed to distribute the "AVS #1" by the Austin Dental Equipment Company or—as Joan would have it—A-dec.

Three months later, the Philadelphia company sent a check to A-dec in the amount of $10,000.

What started out as a way for Ken to stay employed turned into an impossible success story that combines family with a passion for getting it right. The Austins' vision not only helped revolutionize the world of dentistry. It would also create a legacy to make the best better. One solution at a time.