70 years in the business

Family enterprise

Czesław Hędzelek was born on January 30, 1913 in Poznań at the family of Władysław and Zofia Hędzelek. Being 16 years old, after completion of the Szkoła Wydziałowa (Faculty College), he started training to become a dental technician at the doctor Hofman laboratory.

When doctor Hofman gave up his practice, due to his advanced age, my father took up work at a dental laboratory of Mr Kaczmarek to whom he had been recommended by doctor Hofman. This work was interrupted by his draft to the army in 1935, but he returned to the laboratory after his military service and continued working as a dental technician until the breakout of the 2nd World War in 1939.

During German occupation, until the end of the war, he continued working at the same laboratory. After the war, in 1948, he qualified as a dentist, passing an examination before the Health Department committee and aquired the title of Certified Dental Technician. Such title allowed to receive patients and to apply movable prosthetic restorations.

In 1950 he started to work at the first public dental laboratory called „Protezownia“ founded in late 1949 to 1950, where he continued his work as a Certified Dental Technician until retirement. Only movable prosthetic restorations were made there, partial and complete. The consultant for the „Protezownia“ laboratory was professor Sarrazin who greatly appreciated the cooperation of the entire team, including Czesław. He died on December 26, 2004.

Professor Wiesław Hędzelek, DDS, PhD was born in 1948 and, continuing the way started by his father Czesław, established the Candeo Dental Clinic in 2005.

He studied for his dental degree in the years 1966 – 1971. Simultaneously, he was working in the Committee on Culture of the ZSP Students‘ Association, he was a member of the Students‘ Council and he participated in the work of the STN student scientific circle at the Department of Prosthodontics. On the fifth year he had a one-month practice in Zagreb (Yugoslavia). He received the Rector’s Award for his diploma examination. After graduating in 1971 he started to work in the Department of Prosthodontics at the Dental Institute of the Medical University in Poznań within an Assistantship Preparatory Training under the supervision of Professor Rudolf Sarrazin. In 1972, after successful completion of one-year study, he got a full-time position of an assistant. His next teacher was Professor Stefan Włoch, the head of the Department of Prosthodontics until 1996.

In 1976 he was advanced to a position of a senior assistant, and in 1979, after the defense of his PhD thesis “Evaluation of chosen control and correction methods of dental prostheses articulation“ and after achieving a doctor of medicine degree in the same year, he started to work as a lecturer.

His examination for an assistant professor position took place in May 1995 on a basis of the habilitation dissertation „Evaluation of the centric occlusion with a gnatosonic method”. In September of the same year his title of an assistant professor in dentistry – prosthodontics was confirmed by the Central Commission for Scientific Titles and Degrees. In 1975 he became the 1st degree specialist in general dentistry, and in 1979 he became the 2nd degree specialist in prosthodontics.

As a result of a competition, on January 1, 1997 he was nominated by the Rector of the Medical University in Poznań to a position of the Head of the Propedeutic and Dental Rehabilitation Department at the Dental Institute of the Karol Marcinkowski Medical University in Poznań. In January 2002 he was approved for the next five years at this position. Since 2004 he has been the Head of the Department and Clinic of Prosthodontics.

Wiesław Hędzelek was repeatedly appointed to prestigious positions, including the Head of the Propedeutic and Dental Rehabilitation Department at the Dental Institute of the Karol Marcinkowski Medical University in Poznań, the Head of the Department and Clinic of Prosthodontics, the District Consultant For Prosthodontics and the Head of the Dental Centre in the K. Marcinkowski Medical University in Poznań. He spent many years at foreign unversities and and scientific institutions where he was granted scholarships, and he was also delivering lectures and practical courses for students.

His reseach includes 346 titles. Detailed information on the scientific works and achievements of professor Wiesław Hędzelek, DDS, PhD.

The youngest son Mateusz was born in 1980 and he is the only one who chose a path different from the path of his granfather and father. He received a degree in psychology at the Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM) and since 2006 he has been dealing with marketing of the Candeo Dental Clinic, but dental knowledge is not a stranger to him, too.

When he started his studies, psychology absorbed him entirely because of its importance in human life. But when he received his degree, he decided to combine his independent career and UAM University knowledge with a path of the dental tradition of his family. This way, the third generation of Hędzelek family deals with dentistry now.