Ortho Tribune U.S. Edition No.1, 2016

industry Ortho Tribune U.S. Edition | AAO PREVIEW 20168 A toehold in Europe leads to a global footprint By MRC Staff I t seems logical that if the goal is international success, one of the steps toward growing a prosper- ous company would be to es- tablish a strong presence in the domestic market. Compared to overseas, though, the Australian dental industry is quite small, and international companies, such as Henry Schein and DENTSPLY, dominate in the local market. However, there are industry innovators in Australia bucking this trend and be- coming significant players on the inter- national stage. By offering modern treatment options along with the systems necessary to de- liver them effectively and efficiently, Myofunctional Research Co. (MRC) has grown to become established interna- tionally as a frontrunner in a 21st-centu- ry niche of the market. While the head office is based in Australia, the com- pany’s earliest inroads were in Europe, and while MRC is becoming well-known as dental innovators domestically, since 1995 when distribution started, MRC Europe has grown a significant business footprint from its base in Holland. MRC Founder Dr. Chris Farrell said the company’s European origins grew from the acceptance of an idea. “Twenty-five years ago, we were less globally connect- ed,” he said. “At that time, Australian den- tists and orthodontists could not see the importance or potential of our Trainer and Myobrace® systems, whereas the Eu- ropean orthodontists were able to.” MRC Europe’s first distribution con- tract was signed more than 20 years ago for France, where the distributor sold exclusively to orthodontists. Farrell said these orthodontists quickly recognized the potential for MRC’s treatment sys- tems and continue to be enthusiastic about what MRC offers today. “They were more educated in certain areas and understood about function and early treatment, so they immediate- ly took our pre-trainer on board,” he said. “France remains one of our best markets, and when I lecture there these days, they want to learn everything they can about new appliances as well as how we have developed the integrated Myofunctional Activity System and practice manage- ment systems to optimize efficiency and patient compliance. “Our Myofunctional Activity produc- tion, which includes an educational se- ries focused on nutrition and diet is now available in French.” While it was the French willingness to accept an idea that helped MRC establish a toehold in Europe, a regular presence at the International Dental Show (IDS) in Cologne increased awareness and the fading of a 20th century superpower opened access to new European markets. “We have had a presence at every IDS since 1997 and now have distributors in every European country,” Farrell said. “When the former Soviet Union changed, we found that orthodontists in Eastern European countries were already learn- ing about mouth breathing and poor myofunctional habits causing malocclu- sion, so when MRC came along with a bet- ter way to treat, the acceptance was quite high.” Nowadays, the European headquarters naturally includes the standard corpo- rate sales and distribution departments, but Farrell said continuing to educate European dental professionals regarding myofunctional dysfunction and modern pre-orthodontic preventive treatment was an integral part of MRC Europe’s op- eration. “The European HQ includes a substan- tial training center with a fully equipped training clinic to show European dental professionals and their staff how to deliv- er cost-effective pediatric pre-orthodon- tic care for millions of growing children all over Europe,” he said. “Nowadays, we have training sessions almost every week for doctors from all over Europe, and Hol- land is an excellent hub for this.” The acceptance MRC received in Europe was not always the norm, though, and spreading beyond European borders, par- ticularly into the United States, provided a fair share of challenges. Farrell said establishing MRC in the United States caused more of a struggle, as it required a change in thinking for those U.S. dental professionals. “Linking malocclusion to myofunction- al disorder, which can be more difficult to see was a different way of thinking,” he said. “We simplified our education and training process to return to basics and show how you must treat the dysfunc- tion first, then the teeth. “The Myobrace System is more about health, growth and development in younger children rather than a novel way to straighten teeth. To begin with, braces- oriented orthodontists had trouble be- lieving that the system can straighten teeth while only being used for one hour per day and at night. Once they realized, they were amazed at the results, and so during the last two years, all our USA courses have been at capacity and sales of Myobrace were up 51 percent for North America in 2015.” Farrell said that when it came to recog- nizing the potential of MRC’s treatment systems, European dental professionals initially had a slight advantage but their American counterparts had caught on. “Europeans have always used function- al appliances so there was already basic foundation of knowledge to build on,” he Myofunctional Research Co. headquarters in Europe. Photos/Provided by MRC MRC’s booth at IDS in Cologne, Germany, 2015. MRC International Training Facility in Australia. ” See MRC, page 10

Ortho Tribune U.S. Edition No.1, 2016

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