implants - international magazine of oral implantology

business news I Industry leaders identify Turkey as one of the fastest growing dental implant and final abutment markets in the world Turkeyisoneofthefastest-growingdentalimplant markets,congruentwithstrongeconomicgrowththat weathered the recession far better than the US and nearly any region in Europe. The technology of dental implantsinthiscountryhasadvancedrapidly,asmost of the major players in the European market moved quickly to gain a strong market share in Turkey. Addi- tionally, this market benefits from low labor costs, which adds to the incentive for implant companies to establish domestic subsidiaries or local distribution partners, fueling options for consumers. Turkey is also a popular destination for dental tourism, especially among patients from more expensive European mar- kets.From2008to2018,theTurkishdentalimplant,fi- nal abutment and computer-guided surgery market is expectedtogrowatacompoundannualgrowthrateof 20.4%. In May 2011, AGS Medikal Ürünleri, the first major Turkish company to produce dental implants, com- menced operations in the province of Trabzon, on the coast of the Black Sea. The company was established withaninitial5millionTurkishlirainvestment.Market expertspredictthatthecompanywillsoonbejoinedby other Turkish dental implant manufacturers that will offer lower-priced products to compete domestically and later internationally with larger implant compa- nies. EU medical tourism directive will strongly impact the European dental implant market The EU directive on cross-border healthcare that comes into force in 2013 will have a strong impact on theEuropeandentalimplantmarket.Thisdirectivewill targetthemedicaltourismmarket,whichissignificant, asdentaltreatmentproceduresaccountfornearlyhalf of medical tourism in most major markets. The direc- tivegivespatientstherighttobereimbursedfortreat- menttheyreceiveinotherEUcountries.Thiscouldlead to more Western Europeans traveling to Eastern Eu- rope, including Poland and Bulgaria, which are rapidly developingthequalityofthemedicalservicestheyof- fer. The UK features one of the highest rates of out- bounddentaltourism,aspatientsareunaccustomedto largeout-of-pocketcostsforprocedures,owingtothe legacyoftheNationalHealthService.Whereasrichpa- tientsfromdevelopingcountriesusedtocometopres- tigioushospitalsintheUKandelsewherefortreatment, outbound medical travel from the UK has been grow- ingfarfasterthaninboundoverthepastdecade,asUK patients are increasingly traveling abroad for lower- costcare.Figuressuggestmorethan50,000citizensof the UK go abroad for treatment annually. The number of outbound medical tourists from the UK rose by 170%from2002to2009. Dental implant companies follow success of conical internal connection Internal connection types as a whole are becoming increasingly dominant in the dental implant market. Conical internal connections and butt-joint internal connectionsrepresented83.4%ofimplantswithanin- ternalconnectionin2011.Conicalinternalconnections is the fastest-growing segment of the market and ex- pected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of10.1%by2018.NobelActive(NobelBiocare)wasone of the foremost early successes of conical connection types,andwasrapidlyadoptedbyconsumersowingto clinical results demonstrating its greater stability and smallermicro-gapbetweenimplantandabutment.The majority of large companies now offer a conical con- nection,asthismarketisexpectedtoovershadowbutt- joint internal connections increasingly owing to the greaterstabilityandperceivedsmaller-diametermicro- gapofferedbyconicalinternalconnections.Manycom- panies are combining these connection types with ta- peredshapeandsurfacetreatmentsasthecurrentgen- erationofpremiumproducts. _Additional information The information contained in this article was taken from two detailed and comprehensive reports pub- lished by iData Research (www.idataresearch.net), en- titled "European Markets for Dental Implants, Final AbutmentsandComputerGuidedSurgery"and"Euro- pean Markets for Dental Bone Graft Substitutes, Den- tal Membranes and Tissue Engineering." For more in- formation and a free synopsis of the above report, please contact iData Research at dental@idatare- search.net. iData Research is an international market research andconsultingfirmfocusedonprovidingmarketintel- ligenceforthemedicaldevice,dentalandpharmaceu- tical industries. Watch its short company movie at http://www.idataresearch.net/discoveridata.html._ I 37implants3_2012 2008 Conical Internal Connections External Connections Butt Joint Internal Connections Single Unit Devices Source: iData Research Inc. Year Unit Share (%) 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018