Fast Growing Asian Market for Digital Dentistry
The Asian market for digital dentistry is beginning to benefit from recent hospital privatization projects, expansion of private clinics, aging populations and a growing urban middle class. Dentists and laboratories find themselves in the midst of an increasing demand for higher quality restorations and are investing rapidly in CAD/CAM solutions that boost their accuracy and efficiency.
Generally speaking, digital dentistry involves the use of a digital scanner to map out a patient’s dental structure. The scan is sent electronically to a server where the digital information is processed. The dentist or labs fabricate the crown or bridge restoration according to the doctor’s prescription. This digital process is faster and more precise than traditional methods and ultimately, crowns and bridges are made more efficiently. The introduction of digital dentistry has had a large impact in mature markets such as Western Europe and will unlock even more value in growing markets such as the ASEAN region.
There has already been a substantial level of growth in sub-segments of the global market for dental restorations such as in-mouth fillings and out-of-mouth pre-shaped restorations. The number of out-of-mouth restorations prepared with CAD/CAM systems has increased substantially, increasing profit margins across the industry. This has been due to the fact that the number of dental practitioners and dental laboratories using CAD/CAM technology has increased and it is expected to continue to do so at ever increasing rates of market penetration. Related industries are also set to boom, for example, the global market for low iron glass is expected to grow from $444.6 million in 2010 to reach $1.2 billion by 2017.
Fuelling further growth, in March Dental Wings, a Canadian software developer and intraoral scanner manufacturer, announced that it is working with some of the leading providers of dental CAD/CAM equipment, materials, and services to spearhead software standardization in digital dentistry. Increasing standardization will also be the key to unlocking further value in the CAD/CAM industry.
Just to give some perspective, in 2010, the total Asia-Pacific markets for dental prosthetics (made up of Japan, South Korea and Australia) were valued at $6.4 billion, a 0.1% increase over the previous year. In comparison, the overall market CAD/CAM Prosthetics is estimated to grow at a double-digit rate over the forecast period.
One way to gain exposure to these high growth markets, would be to sponsor and exhibit at the 2012 Commonwealth Dental Association/Malaysian Dental Association/FDI International Scientific Convention and Trade Exhibition being held in conjunction with the 69thMDA AGM, an event attracting up to 3000 dental practitioners from throughout the world and providing access to the high growth ASEAN +2 (China and India) market.
The sponsorship and exhibition prospectus can be downloaded here.
