And the battle goes on …
Lately, I had the opportunity to visit two major gatherings of endodontists and implantologists in Europe. After listening to a number of lectures and speaking to experts it became obvious to me that both specialties are in almost total denial of one another. This ongoing cease fire is nothing new to dentistry but it cannot disguise the fact that one field is slowly loosing its grip, and it’s not implantology. Tooth replacements have seen a remarkable upswing and are expected to gain a significant market volume of US$1 billion in the years to come. Growth rates have slowed down recently but this is due to the fact that more and more dental companies are jumping on the implant bandwagon and taking over market shares from big players like Nobel Biocare or Straumann. With the economy recovering in most parts of the world, people will also have more money in their pockets to invest in their smiles.
P-I Branemark’s call to let the patient decide at the Gothenburg Symposium last week must be acknowledged but it goes out to the wrong group of people (see also Experts discuss future of implantology in Gothenburg). More and more patients want aesthetic teeth and they do not care about what it takes to get there. Latest studies also reveal that by now many consider aesthetics to be more important than function. It is up to the dentists to decide whether a tooth should be replaced or not but constantly improving treatment options and lowering investments will make the choice an easy one. On top of that, a growing number of implant vendors is practicing more and more aggressive marketing. It seems unlikely that many dentists will resist these market calls in the long-run.
In Gothenburg, a clinical scan was shown where basically all teeth had been replaced with implants. As ridiculous as this example may be, it does hold some truth. The future doesn’t look very bright for the ‘root’.
