Zahn Dental, the US dental laboratory business of Henry Schein, Inc., has announced that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Terrats Medical, SL, the Spain-based manufacturer of the DESS® Dental Smart Solutions system. A prosthetic solutions provider, DESS offers solutions that can help enhance laboratory technicians’ ability to restore dental implants while providing dental laboratories with a single source for their prosthetic component needs.

Featuring a wide range of connections and platforms, the DESS product line includes analogs, screws, hybrid bases, solutions for angled screw channels, multi-unit abutments for screw-retained prosthetics, and digital workflow components compatible with leading implant manufacturer brands. Together, these options enable laboratory technicians to produce the entire treatment, from temporaries to screw or cement-retained prosthetics. As a result, the full portfolio of DESS solutions can help dental laboratories streamline their purchasing process, reduce inventory from a variety of implant manufacturers, and simplify the production workflow in their laboratory.

“Zahn is committed to providing innovative, integrated health care products and services that customers can rely on to help deliver high quality patient care,” said Rita Acquafredda, President, Global Laboratory Business, Zahn Dental. “The DESS portfolio of prosthetic components can help laboratory technicians produce premium restorations with reliable and durable prosthetic materials, further amplifying Zahn’s ability to deliver end-to-end solutions, and helping our customers’ implant businesses thrive.”

The DESS product line also offers laboratory technicians a range of options to meet the unique needs of patient cases. All DESS components come with a lifetime warranty, and DESS is offering to cover implant replacement in cases where the implant manufacturer does not honor its warranty.

“As DESS continues to innovate and ensure its current portfolio reflects the needs and demands of today’s industry, we are pleased to partner with Henry Schein’s laboratory business to help enhance the array of options its customers can access,” said Dr. Hans Berglund, Business Development, DESS Smart Solutions.

Zahn can provide a solution to help enable laboratories to standardize their fee schedule and help create efficiencies in their bottom line. For more product information, call 800-496-9500, or visit www.zahndental.com/dess.

Oral health professionals have a crucial but not fully realized role to play in advancing and improving the overall health of the general population, according to an essay published in the Journal of Dental Education.

Noting that experts have recognized the basic connection between oral health and overall well-being for close to a century, Keith A. Mays, D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D., Interim Dean at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, wrote: “Approximately 100 years later, we are still having this conversation on the importance of oral health within the greater health system to help keep the population healthy.”

Dr. Mays’s commentary, “The ability of oral health professionals to significantly influence improving overall health,” was published in the January issue of JDE, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA).

In his essay, Dr. Mays noted that a 2000 report by then-Surgeon General David Satcher brought national attention to the fact that “dental caries was the most common childhood disease and that oral health was an integral component of good general health.” In that report, Dr. Satcher called on all health care providers to play a role in improving the nation’s oral health status.

“I would suggest that, not only should all health care providers contribute to enhancing oral health, but that oral health providers should contribute to enhancing overall health,” Dr. Mays wrote.

Dr. Mays identified several obstacles to achieving that goal, including a health care system that is often too fragmented (instead of integrated and person-centered), inadequate communication between dental health providers and the overall medical team, and financial reimbursement models that do not support oral health professional screening for chronic diseases.

“Despite these and other obstacles, we are still in a moment of significant opportunity for oral health professionals to contribute to the improvement of overall health in the population,” he wrote.

Dr. Mays is the Chair-elect of the ADEA Board of Directors and has served the Association in various capacities since 2003.

The Dental Laboratory Association of Texas (DLAT) is getting ready for their 2021 Southwest Conference & Expo. The hybrid event, accessible either in person or through live stream, will take place on Friday, March 26, and Saturday, March 27, at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center in Grapevine, TX. Visit the 2021 Conference Portal for more information.

Zahn Dental is introducing their newest webinar series, Quick Bite! Quick Bite is a digestible, 30-minute web series focused on technical application and ROI. Quick Bite presentations take place near breakfast or lunch, depending on what coast you are on, so you can have a bite and learn something new from one of the industry leading experts.

Discover all the education Zahn has planned: www.zahndental.com/education

Bringing extensive experience in marketing and brand management for global organizations, Patric Frank will drive the continued expansion of the dental specialists from Liechtenstein as CMO, effective immediately.

One of the leading dental companies worldwide, with a comprehensive portfolio of products and systems for dentists and dental technicians, Ivoclar Vivadent AG is continuing to focus on global expansion and on strengthening its presence in growing markets. Achieving this goal not only requires innovative products and services for the regions in question, it also demands a comprehensive branding and marketing strategy that is tailored to brand and customer experience.

Greater customer focus

Patric Frank has been with the company since the beginning of 2019, and his appointment as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Ivoclar Vivadent from January 1, 2021, underlines the importance of this task. In his new role as a member of Corporate Management, Patric Frank will be responsible for all global business units as well as for planning and implementation of the global marketing strategy. In particular, Patric Frank will concentrate both on further enhancing global awareness of our brand and its positive image, as well as on optimizing customer focus.

Extensive experience in brand management

In doing so, Patric Frank has the advantage that he has already been with the company since the start of 2019—initially as Co-CEO of Kapanu, an Ivoclar Vivadent subsidiary. Headquartered in Zurich, this start-up specializes in visual data processing and machine learning for dental applications, developing solutions such as the smile visualization app IvoSmile. In June 2019, Patric Frank also took over leadership of the Global Brand & Marketing Communications sector at Ivoclar Vivadent, where his responsibilities included brand management, customer experience, digital communication, and scientific marketing. Patric Frank brings extensive experience in brand management for global organizations. He previously held various sales and marketing roles at Salomon, Sonos, and Logitech.

Mavrik Dental Systems is pleased to announce the launch of their fully reimagined educational and interactive website. The immersive digital experience can be found at www.mavrikdental.com and went live on Thursday, December 31, 2020.

The new website offers a comprehensive product overview, easy navigation and a clean interface allowing visitors to gain knowledge about TheraSmile Whitening and the science behind the patented technologies.

Mavrik Dental Systems Chief Executive Officer Tom Olsen said, “this is an important milestone for the company that makes us quite proud. We are excited to offer the dental market an engaging website that will undoubtedly create excitement for our uniquely innovative TheraSmile Whitening treatment.”

Mavrik Dental Systems is currently preparing for launch in the Southern California region in Q1 2021, with further expansion across the U.S. later in the year.

About Mavrik Dental Systems

Mavrik Dental Systems is modernizing everyday dental therapies by providing oral care automation with a multidisciplinary platform. Our high-quality portfolio of cosmetic and preventive oral therapeutics and devices are focused on helping our customers provide enhanced aesthetics and improved oral health for their patients.

For more information, please visit www.mavrikdental.com or search social media handle: mavrikdental

Improving upon the Dental Partnership Organization (DPO) model, Imagen Dental Partners is rapidly growing a collection of high-performing, technology-forward dental practices. Imagen enables independent dentists the ability to focus on delivering superior patient care, fostering growth through education and technology, and creating long-term wealth.

Imagen is a DPO that allows dentists full clinical autonomy, emphasizes technology and mastery of advanced clinical skills, and encourages dentists to practice at the highest standards possible. Imagen DPO is at the forefront of true partnership, born from the desire to support doctors in supporting their patients.

“Every independent dentist will need a strategy to survive and thrive in a very rapidly consolidating dental industry,” says Michael Augins, Imagen President. “When a dentist partners with Imagen DPO, they can maintain their clinical control while maximizing the wealth creation potential they have as independent practice owners. Imagen is for technology-oriented dentists wanting to grow their practice meaningfully over the remainder of their career.”

Many DSO’s and DPO’s focus on short-term profitability with the intent to sell the practice group in a quick flip. Imagen has a long-term ownership structure with no institutional capital and offers a higher level of alignment with their dentist partners financially and clinically. Imagen DPO maximizes value to their dentist partners, providing them with financial incentives in three ways: getting paid for the dentistry they produce, getting paid for the profitability of their practice, and getting paid a portion of the profitability of Imagen as a whole. Imagen DPO provides partners with access to the dental industry’s most robust offering of education and mentoring opportunities by Spear Education and CDOCS, allowing them to learn from dentistry’s leading educators to expand their skills and elevate their entire team.

Imagen partners with successful practices and utilizes a proprietary suite of growth playbooks to unlock the full growth potential. They provide a full complement of robust business support, enabling partners to focus on delivering excellent patient care.

“I joined Imagen to get rid of the administrative headaches while keeping autonomy and ownership in my practice. I now have a defined exit plan with more wealth opportunities than just owning and selling a solo practice. It’s also more fulfilling to be part of a community of like-minded dentists,” states Rich Rosenblatt, DMD, founding Imagen partner.

Technology is not an afterthought at Imagen – it is a requirement. All Imagen practice partners must utilize CAD/CAM and cone-beam or be willing to do so upon joining the partnership. “Technology unlocks practice growth and improves patient outcomes and their satisfaction with the treatment they receive,” said Rezwan Manji, Chief Executive Officer at Imagen. “We know from our research that high tech practices outperform and, therefore, see this as an essential part of who we are as an entity.

With current operations in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin, Imagen is already one of the fastest-growing DPO’s in America. With rapid expansion planned for 2021, Imagen is well on track to achieve its goal of becoming Americas fastest-growing dental partnership organization.

For more information about Imagen Dental Partners, visit imagendentalpartners.com or email info@imagendentalpartners.com. 

Dentsply Sirona today announced that it has acquired Datum Dental, Ltd. with its strong OSSIX® biomaterial portfolio. Datum Dental is an Israel-based company, known for its innovative dental regeneration products with the clinically superior proprietary technology GLYMATRIX®. Datum Dental complements Dentsply Sirona’s existing implant dentistry strategy around Ankylos, Astra Tech Implant System, Xive and Atlantis, focusing on established quality and meaningful innovation. In addition, Datum Dental has a strong R&D pipeline with many promising products with differentiated value propositions and Dentsply Sirona has the capacity to further invest in its future development.

The acquisition of Datum Dental will open up significant opportunities for Dentsply Sirona within its Implants segment. With a track record of simplifying and developing innovations for regenerative procedures, the OSSIX® portfolio will support the vision to become one of the leaders in the dental regeneration industry. With innovative products driven by the GLYMATRIX® core technology, OSSIX® bio-durable design will ensure long-term predictable and superior results. The OSSIX® dental regeneration products will support and enhance the future of implant dentistry and oral care.

“Datum Dental perfectly fits in our strategy to deliver innovative and meaningful solutions for our customers. The biomaterial sector is an important cornerstone of the future of dentistry. The acquisition is another important step for us to deliver on our purpose to empower dental professionals to provide patients with better dental care and make people smile,” says Gene Dorff, Group Vice President Implants Product Group of Dentsply Sirona.

“We are pleased that the OSSIX® family is becoming part of the market leader in dental. Dentsply Sirona offers us opportunities to work on continued innovation with the strongest R&D team in the industry. Our R&D pipeline will continue to develop new, safe and transformational solutions – that simplify procedures and overcome major deficiencies in existing biomaterial‐based regenerative products,” says Itay Itzhaky, Chief Executive Officer of Datum Dental.

Since 2016, Dentsply Sirona has already been in distribution agreements with Datum Dental. Today, Dentsply Sirona is promoting the full OSSIX® portfolio (OSSIX® Plus, OSSIX® Volumax, and OSSIX™ Bone) in the U.S., Canada, Colombia, France, Belgium, UK-Ireland, Nordics, Poland, Romania, Turkey and Hong Kong.

Clinicians will benefit in the future from OSSIX® products’ being implemented in a broad set of solutions and workflows and Dentsply Sirona’s capacity to invest in the future development. The strong OSSIX® portfolio will be the foundation of the Regenerative portfolio of Dentsply Sirona. The transaction is expected to close in January 2021, following customary approval requirements.

About Datum Dental

Datum Dental is an innovative Israel-based company for dental regeneration products with clinically superior proprietary technology. The company markets its products for dental professionals through its extensive global network of partners in over 40 countries worldwide. The company was founded in 2012, has 50 employees and its headquarters is in Lod, close to Tel Aviv, Israel.

Datum Dental is a leading provider of the innovative OSSIX® regenerative solutions portfolio. Powered by the company’s patented GLYMATRIX® technology, OSSIX® Plus, OSSIX® Volumax, and OSSIX™ Bone are covered by over 100 scientific publications and extensive clinical experience with thousands of clinicians. The company uses its proprietary GLYMATRIX® core technology, a proven process that uses naturally occurring sugar to cross-link collagen biomaterial, for guided bone regeneration (GBR) and guided tissue regeneration (GTR). The OSSIX® product portfolio has enabled clinicians in hundreds of thousands of procedures in over 40 countries to safely provide predictable, long-term results to their patients over the past 20 years.

Avista Capital Partners ("Avista"), a leading private equity firm focused exclusively on healthcare, last week completed its previously announced acquisition of Solmetex, the industry's leading provider of amalgam separators and other waste compliance products to the U.S. and Canadian dental industries. Terms of the transaction werenot disclosed.

For over 25 years, Solmetex has been an innovator in waste solutions, with a primary focus on ensuring dental practices remain compliant with the ever-changing regulatory landscape.

Avista's acquisition will enable Solmetex to continue its commitment to deliver best-in-class,environmentally responsible dental waste technologies and programs to its physician partners and the communities they serve, while fueling investment in the future growth of its products and offerings, as well as accelerating expansion. Avista believes that Solmetex has the potential for robust domestic and international growth.

About Solmetex

Solmetex provides waste management products and services through a series of specializedprocesses and systems that cost-effectively remove mercury from the waste stream and offersadditional dental waste solutions. The company's NXT Hg5™ Series of Amalgam Separatorsand recycling program, which treat dental wastewater, is highly regarded as the best solution for regulatory compliance. Solmetex is widely recognized as the single trusted source forcomprehensive environmental solutions for dental waste needs. For additional information,visit www.solmetex.com

About Avista Capital Partners

Founded in 2005, Avista Capital is a leading New York-based private equity firm with over $6 billion invested in more than 35 growth-oriented healthcare businesses globally. Avistapartners with businesses that feature strong management teams, stable cash flows and robustgrowth prospects – investing in the medical devices and technologies, pharmaceuticals,outsourced pharmaceutical services, distribution, and consumer-driven healthcare sectors.Avista's Operating Executives and Advisors are an integral part of the team, providing strategicinsight, operational oversight, and senior counsel, which helps drive growth and performance,while fostering sustainable businesses and creating long-term value for all stakeholders. Foradditional information, visit www.avistacap.com

Ivoclar Vivadent and 3Shape are intensifying their collaborative efforts with the common goal of developing the best possible oral health solutions – for the health and well-being of patients.

Ivoclar Vivadent specializes in producing smart product systems for the dental industry with the objective of giving people around the world a smile. 3Shape is a developer of 3D scanners and the associated software who is setting new standards in digital applications. The product portfolio of the Danish company ideally complements the systems composed of dental materials and production equipment from Ivoclar Vivadent, a leading authority on esthetic dentistry.

Fully integrated digital workflows

Both companies strive to offer highly efficient and fully integrated digital workflows. The scanning and CAD software solutions from 3Shape are coordinated with the PrograMill and PrograPrint CAM machines from Ivoclar Vivadent. This clever combination together with superior dental materials ensures outstanding results that promote good health and well-being.

The two companies are collaborating in the following areas:

- Patient consultation with IvoSmile, an augmented reality software that provides the patient with a preview of the treatment result in real-time 3D.

- A fully integrated chairside solution featuring PrograScan One intraoral scanners and PrograMill One, a compact 5-axis milling machine designed for IPS e.max.

- Integration of the Ivotion Denture System and the patented workflows from Ivoclar Vivadent in the 3Shape Dental System 2020.

Diego Gabathuler, the CEO of Ivoclar Vivadent, is excited about his company’s collaboration with 3Shape: “Ivoclar Vivadent and 3Shape together offer competitive end-to-end solutions not only for dental offices, but also for laboratories and orthodontic practices.” Jakob Just-Bomholt, the CEO of 3Shape, has this to add: “The success story of 3Shape and Ivoclar Vivadent continues. We believe that these offerings will enhance the overall patient experience, and give dentists and technicians all the benefits of 3Shape’s and Ivoclar’s powerful products. We look forward to seeing the creative minds of both companies coming up with more solutions and workflows that will further enhance dental treatment procedures.”

Creating patients' future smiles together

IvoSmile is an augmented reality-based software that is designed to help dental professionals advise their patients effectively. IvoSmile has been integrated in the 3Shape Trios treatment simulator. Therefore, patients can be given a preview in real-time of their prospective new smile after an orthodontic treatment. IvoSmile is now fully compatible with the 3Shape Dental System. The new version of the app* ensures complete CAD integration. IvoSmile data is transferred quickly and easily to the dental lab via a special interface. Subsequently, the construction data is sent from the 3Shape Dental System back to the practice, where the patient is shown the treatment proposal in detail. The laboratory and the dentist can then effectively coordinate the work needed to create the patient’s new smile.

A fully integrated system for dentists

Two new intraoral PrograScan One scanners powered by 3Shape have joined the fully integrated chairside system from Ivoclar Vivadent, which enables dentists to fabricate highly esthetic and precise dental restorations in-house. PrograScan One is seamlessly coordinated with the PrograMill One milling machine – a chairside milling machine that has been specially developed for processing IPS e.max – for an unparalleled user experience. This process will change the way dentists do their work. The versatile PrograDesign software features intuitive workflows involving both PrograScan One and PrograMill One. This comprehensive, integrated clinical system offers dentists exceptional flexibility: They can choose between one-day treatments in which the restoration is produced in-house or procedures where the fabrication of the restoration is outsourced to a preferred laboratory partner or a third-party supplier.

A revolution in denture fabrication

The Ivotion Denture System from Ivoclar Vivadent provides a comprehensive and smooth digital workflow for the fabrication of high-quality removable dentures. The bicoloured, monolithic Ivotion CAD/CAM disc – in combination with the PrograMill milling machines – allow you to fabricate upper and lower dentures efficiently and predictably in one milling process. The “Shell Geometry” which is located within the disc is a three-dimensional tooth arch structure that defines the transition between the tooth and the gingiva sections of the disc. It ensures results that are stress-free and very strong and homogenous. The intuitive Ivotion CAD Design software, which is integrated in the 3Shape Dental System 2020, enables you to customize the removable denture to the individual needs of the patient. After the denture has been milled, it only requires polishing.

PrograMill©, PrograPrint®, IPS e.max® and IvoSmile® are registered trademarks of Ivoclar Vivadent AG.

* The IvoSmile app is available in selected markets. 

About Ivoclar Vivadent

Ivoclar Vivadent, headquartered in Schaan, Liechtenstein, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of innovative material systems for high-quality dental applications. The company’s success is based on a comprehensive portfolio of products and systems, strong research and development capabilities and a clear commitment to training and further education. The company has wholly owned subsidiaries in 30 countries, and it employs around 3,600 employees (FTE) worldwide. More information about Ivoclar Vivadent is available at www.ivoclarvivadent.com.

About 3Shape

3Shape is changing dentistry together with dental professionals across the world by developing innovations that provide superior dental care for patients. Our portfolio of 3D scanners and CAD/CAM software solutions includes the multiple award-winning 3Shape TRIOS intraoral scanner and market-leading scanning and design software solutions for both dental practices and labs.

Two graduate students founded 3Shape in Denmark’s capital in the year 2000. Today, 3Shape has over 1,600 employees serving customers in over 100 countries from an ever-growing number of 3Shape offices around the world. 3Shape’s products and innovations continue to challenge traditional methods, enabling dental professionals to treat more patients more effectively. www.3shape.com