Dental Asia March/April 2019

Dental Profile
In addition, Dentsply Sirona will continue
investing US$150 million annually in R&D
for the whole company to constantly
provide innovations and solutions and
meet the demands of dental professionals.
Finally, Dr. Thiel revealed that at the
International Dental Show (IDS) 2019
Primescan is their breakthrough product.
He is looking forward to seeing other
intraoral scanners and he is confident that
Primescan will convince everybody that it
is the best in the market today.
(L-R) Ms. Jamie Tan, Publications Director of Dental Asia, Dr. Frank Thiel, Vice President R&D CAD/CAM
and Orthodontics and Ms. Marion Par-Weixlberger, Vice President Corporate Communications &
Public Relations of Dentsply Sirona
provide better, safer and faster dental
care. Nowadays, dental practitioners
and patients have evolved and grown
to know what they need and want; they
are the ones asking manufacturers for
innovations and solutions. According
to Dr. Thiel, digitalisation is the trend
not solely in his SBU but for the whole
dental industry. In orthodontics, he
considers clear aligner solutions
providing great opportunities.
“The best way for dental practitioners
to market their practice is through
innovation and we are here to provide
innovative product solutions for them. In
orthodontics for instance, we now have a
complete clear aligner workflow through
SureSmile, as we acquired OraMetrix one
year ago. Now with Primescan, users can
scan and upload the data to the SureSmile
portal and have simplest and seamless
orthodontic workflow integration. Stay
tuned to see more innovative product
solutions and workflows from us in the
future,” Dr. Thiel remarked.
Looking at the bigger picture
In the Asia Pacific region, he shared
that CAD/CAM is a growing market and
the company sees the region playing an
integral role in orthodontics, endodontics
and implantology.
“We respect the differences in every
region and as a company we try to
look at the bigger picture, what every
dental professional needs, develop a
product and then adapt it per region.
Asia Pacific is very important for us.
Japan being the 2 nd biggest dental
market in the world after US will
remain in our focus,” he added.
Plans for continued growth
and expansion in Asia
Dr. Thiel emphasised that
Dentsply Sirona values training
and education as CAD/CAM and
orthodontics are a
growing market
in the region. The
company expects
the speed of
digitalisation in Asia
will be faster than in other
regions in the world but they are well
prepared through providing products
like Primescan and optimalisation
in terms of software. In particular,
the company has highly invested in
education and training in Japan and
has built two more training centres
together with around 11 showrooms.
Dentsply Sirona is also very
active in building up educational
environments in China, Australia,
Korea and the rest of the region.
“I remember when we launched
CEREC Omnicam- I thought I won’t be
able to develop such a great product
again for the rest of my life. Today, I am
very proud to say that I feel the same way
and even better. I am fortunate enough to
have been able to develop Primescan with
the help of the rest of my team. It is very
exciting to show to the dental industry
how Primescan takes digital impression to
a higher level,” he excitedly revealed. DA
The new Primescan
intraoral scanner
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DENTAL ASIA MARCH / APRIL 2019