“Good workwear makes you happy, flexible and speaks volumes about your brand”

Many oral health professionals visited Medanta's stand at the Dental Days in Helsinki from November 22nd to 24th to get to know our products and purchase workwear directly on site.

This is what fair visitors commented when we asked them for their thoughts on good workwear:

"It's not tight, and it's not a bag"

What do you value in good workwear?

“The ease of care and flexibility of clothing are important in many jobs. I am both a dentist and a doctor by profession and have worked in both the private and public sectors. As a private dentist, I especially appreciated the ease of care because I washed and ironed my own work clothes. Now I work in the hospital world, where the laundry takes care of the maintenance work.”

What is the importance of workwear safety?

"Easy care and hygiene of work clothes are important. For example, dentists have long worn short-sleeved shirts because they are better for washing hands than longer sleeves. Short sleeves do not get wet when washing hands and do not get dirty at work."

When I graduated as a dentist in 1998, short-sleeved shirts were already in use almost everywhere. Although in the dental field, long-sleeved jackets are still preferred in hospitals. When I worked in the military, I wore a doctor's coat over my military uniform.

“Now doctors are also able to wear ¾-length sleeves, which I think is a good thing. It may take some time for doctors to get used to the idea of ​​shorter sleeves, but I think they will gradually catch on.”

If you could decide for yourself, what kind of work uniform would you choose for your hospital?

"Work clothes should not be tight, but they should not be baggy. Women especially appreciate that work clothes are cut to fit. I think it is good that work clothes follow the general look of the company or organization. They can also have color and organization-specific patterns or embroidery. On the other hand, there is no need to have different clothes for different professional groups.

The public sector is also increasingly becoming more branded and has a more polished look. This is influenced by the competitive landscape: even if social welfare is not implemented, the public and private sectors will increasingly compete for customers. At that time, also visual aspects are important, such as stylish premises, uniform signage and well-groomed work clothes.

For example, we are currently building a new health centre next to the hospital in Savonlinna. It will be a beautiful building that will also use a lot of wood in the interior. When it is completed in 2021, it will be important that the work clothes of the nursing staff are also suitable for the new environment.”

Do you have any experience with Medanta clothing or smart clothing?

“I am not directly responsible for our hospital's clothing purchases, so I don't know much about the different producers. Medanta's antibacterial property in the fabric seems interesting.

I have already had some experience with the smart features of workwear. For example, some hospitals take care of the logistics of workwear using a chip sewn into the clothes. At the same time, it can also be determined how many pieces of workwear each employee has to wear per week.

The clothing could also include a variety of monitoring technologies, if deemed appropriate and necessary. This technology could be used to measure, for example, an employee's heart rate, step count, or stress level.”

“A colorful work uniform speaks of friendly service”

What do you value in good workwear?

"Easy care, usability and beauty. I work as the CEO of a dental clinic with 16 employees and I want us all to have uniform outfits, even though some work as entrepreneurs and some as employees."

Five years ago you chose Medanta workwear for your company. What were the selection criteria?

“The starting point was our company image and the desire to follow a uniform line in workwear as well. Our corporate image features purple, green and orange, and at first I thought the outfits would have two of these colors. Then we received a bunch of different colored clothes from Medanta to try on, and everyone was able to express their opinions and wishes about them.

In the end, we came up with a solution together that I think is good and beautifully colorful. Everyone has white pants, but everyone gets to choose the color of their shirt – and you can also change the color sometimes.

Women often choose a dark blue shirt and men choose green or orange. One employee chose a pink shirt and I chose bright orange – I think it suits me well, I couldn't have thought of a muted shade of orange.

Dental offices usually use a lot of blue or green, so colorfulness is our thing. The colors emphasize the cheerful and friendly service of our company.

Medanta has beautiful designs that suit many body types. We have one shirt style for men and two different options for women.”

What is the importance of safety and smart features in workwear?

"Workwear should always be practical and safe. For example, a work shirt should not be too long when you are doing seated work. However, working postures are also changing these days: standing work is increasingly preferred, because sitting for long periods of time is not healthy."

I am very satisfied with the safety of Medanta's clothes and also with the antibacterial treatment. This feature was not available five years ago when we started working together. Safety is also ensured by the ease of care of the clothes. We wash the clothes in the workplace's own machine so that no one has to take them home. It is more hygienic.

I haven't yet explored the smart features of clothing in more detail, but I'm following the development with interest and appreciate Medanta's innovative work in the textile industry."

“The material can be tough, but it has to be flexible”

What do you value in good workwear?

"Workwear should be easy to put on and take off. The material must be breathable and somewhat flexible," say dental hygienists Jaana Andersson and Iida Mäkelä from Munkkiniemi Dental Clinic in Helsinki.

"It's a good idea for a work shirt to be long enough so that it doesn't ride up too much in the back when you move," Iida adds.

“And the drawstrings on the trouser legs should be such that they don't have to be constantly adjusted. The legs could be already baggy,” Jaana suggests.

"I personally don't like the fact that work shirts have buttons. I would like a shirt that is easy to wear without buttons. When I was a student, I wore Medanta work clothes, and I thought they were really good," Iida says.

What is the importance of workwear safety?

"Of course, it is important that the clothing is good and safe and made specifically for work. The clothing should not have any extra protrusions or parts that could catch on something while working," says Iida.

"Currently, we receive our clothes on behalf of our employer and they are also washed at the laundry, which makes choosing and maintaining our clothes easy. We can also use as many clothes as we need per week," Jaana says.

If you could decide for yourself, what kind of work attire would you choose?

"I would like a short-sleeved shirt without buttons and pants that are as dark as possible, with ready-made baggy legs. It would be fun if I could change my outfit as needed," Jaana says.

"We would choose a material that is strong enough but also breathable and drapes well. And we would like more colors! Good colors for a shirt are, for example, red, dark blue, purple and pink. Dark pants and a pink shirt would be a good combination," Iida and Jaana say.