HOUSTON, TEXAS, April 19, 2016—NuSmile Ltd. announced today that it is celebrating its 25th anniversary by offering a “25th Anniversary 20% Discount” to the customers who have made its quarter-century of pediatric restorative dentistry leadership possible. Any U.S. dental practice placing an order with the company at the upcoming American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) 2016 Annual Session in San Antonio will receive a 20% discount.
“We’re the only company in the world that can say our crowns have been selected for use in over four million esthetic pediatric crown restorations,” said Diane Johnson Krueger, NuSmile’s founder and CEO. “We take great pride in being able to say that, but we wouldn’t be able to if it weren’t for many thousands of talented, caring and loyal customers.” Ms. Krueger credits NuSmile’s customers for more than choosing NuSmile products; she credits them for being the inspiration behind the unprecedented quality and innovation of those products.
“All of our products were developed and refined based not only on our in-depth understanding of dental materials science, but on the insights we’ve received from the dentists who use our products every day,” she said.
For example, when exploring its entry into the market for pediatric zirconia crowns, Ms. Krueger and other NuSmile team members conducted an exhaustive investigation of published and internal research while also asking pediatric dentists what they most wanted in a zirconia crown. Many dentists said they were concerned about the fact that saliva and blood contamination occurs 100 percent of the time when the zirconia crown is placed on the tooth during the trial fit stage. These informed dentists realized that the phosphates in saliva strongly adhere to zirconia, significantly impairing cement bond strength and risking cementation failure. NuSmile’s unique solution: the NuSmile ZR zirconia pediatric crown system, featuring reusable pink Try-In crowns that are identical in size and shape to the actual zirconia crowns. Try-In crowns eliminate the need to place the zirconia crowns in the mouth prior to cementation. “The first time our NuSmile ZR crown enters the patient’s mouth is also the last time, which makes blood and saliva contamination impossible,” said Ms. Krueger. “Prior to our introduction of this system, the clinician’s only option was to use the actual zirconia crown for trial fitting, which adds time-consuming cleaning steps or risks cementation failure. Listening to our customers’ concerns was critical to our ability to solve this dilemma with our unique Try-In crown system.”
Another example relates to a product category in which NuSmile was not previously involved. For years, pediatric dentists had been asking for a luting cement that would be ideal for bonding not only zirconia crowns, but stainless steel crowns and space maintainers. As these dentists’ restoration options expanded, their cement armamentarium did as well, increasing their inventories and creating unwanted complexity. Glass ionomer cements were the most common choice for use with preveneered and stainless steel crowns, as fluoride release was an important criterion. However, the dentists wanted an option that offered better ease of handling and mixing and dual-cure flexibility.
As a result, in 2014 NuSmile launched BioCem® Universal BioActive Cement, a hydrophilic, dualcure, bioactive cement that releases not only fluoride, but calcium and phosphate as well. This enables NuSmile BioCem to form hydroxyapatite while still exhibiting exceptional bond strength between dentin and zirconia, pre-veneered and stainless steel crowns.
The company’s latest product, NuSmile NeoMTA, was introduced in response to pediatric dentists’ desire for an affordable MTA for pediatric pulp therapy. For decades, many pediatric dentists in the U.S. had felt that the only affordable and scientifically proven medicament for pulp therapy was formocresol, which has been banned in many other countries due to toxicity concerns arising from its formaldehyde component. While numerous scientific studies have confirmed that MTA is at least as effective as formocresol for pulp therapy, most pediatric dentists have been unable to incorporate it into their practices due to a price that was several times that of formocresol. Fortunately for these dentists, bioactive, non-cytotoxic NuSmile NeoMTA carries a dramatically lower price tag than other MTAs. In addition, it does not stain, offers much easier handling, and mixes to a putty-like consistency similar to other commonly used materials like ZOE. “Once again,” said Ms. Krueger, “our customers’ insights and suggestions were instrumental in allowing us to introduce a clearly superior product that benefits both them and their patients.”
According to Ms. Krueger, a key to NuSmile’s ability to act on its customers’ suggestions has been its unprecedented collaboration with many of the world's leading universities and research organizations, such as the Houston Biomaterials Research Center at UTDB Houston, the University of Texas San Antonio, the University of Washington, University of Tennessee-Memphis, and THE DENTAL ADVISOR. “For 25 years, our commitment to serving our customers has been matched only by our commitment to a rock-solid scientific foundation supporting all of our product development work,” said Ms. Krueger.
The market-leading sales of NuSmile products inspired by its loyal customers have enabled the family-owned company to demonstrate its own loyalty by contributing over $2 million to the AAPD, CAPD/ACPD, EAPD, AMOP, IAPD, ICPPD and other pediatric dentistry organizations over the past 25 years.
Dental practices wishing to take advantage of “NuSmile’s 25th Anniversary 20% Discount” may do so by placing an order at the company’s booth (#201) at the AAPD 2016 Annual Session May 27-29 in San Antonio, Texas. Attendees are also invited to stop by the NuSmile booth at 4:00 pm Saturday, May 28 for an event commemorating the company’s 25th Anniversary. More information about NuSmile and its products can be found at www.nusmile.com.
