news | of 0.6% and a sequential decrease of 1.6%. The company had warned analysts in October that it expected sluggish case starts to linger into the fourth quarter, owing to what CEO Joseph Hogan described as “deteriorating trends, including decreased patient visits and increased patient cancellations, along with fewer orthodontic case starts overall, especially among adult patients”. Hogan said in a press release that results for the period were better than expected, “primarily reflecting a sequential increase in clear aligner volume for adults and non- comprehensive cases, growth in Canada and the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, as well as increased revenues from systems and services”. Hogan clarified to analysts that fourth-quarter aligner volumes were down year on year in the Americas and EMEA region and up in the Asia Pacific region. Net revenues for the period totalled US$957 million, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%—made up of aligner sales of US$782 million, up by 6.9%, and imaging systems and CAD/CAM services revenue of US$175 million, up by 2.9%. For the full year, sales of US$3.9 billion represented a 3.4% year-on-year gain, helped by a 4.1% increase in aligner revenues and modest increases in aligner shipments (0.4%) and in revenues from sales of imaging systems and CAD/CAM services (0.1%). Hogan told analysts that Align began offering discounts in the fourth quarter to patients in the US and a selection of other markets who had been affected by the recent bankruptcy of a DTC aligner company. Without naming SDC, Hogan said the bankruptcy event had caused “many consumers to reach out to Invisalign providers to address their unmet needs, including helping those DTC patients with incomplete treatments”. Dentsply Sirona reports growth in dental implants and orthodontics The fourth quarter ended a transitional year for Dentsply Sirona and marked the first anniversary of its new lead- ership team. Fourth-quarter sales totalled US$1 billion— up by 2.9% year on year, or by 1.9% on an organic ba- sis, despite tepid US dental market conditions. US sales were down by 0.4% (a 1.2% organic drop), and those in Europe and the rest of the world increased by 5.3% and 4.3%, respectively. Looking at the company’s business segments, ortho- dontic and dental implant sales increased by 10.3%, bolstered by SureSmile aligner sales, which grew by 13.0%. Chief Financial Officer Glenn Coleman told an- alysts that double-digit growth in the company’s den- tal implant sales had been a bright spot in the period, driven by 35% growth in China and higher demand in Europe. “Globally, premium and value implants saw similar growth rates. Our US implants business was [...] results from the giants of dentistry reflected caution by private dental clinics and dental support organisations [...]. down slightly in the quarter, but showed less of a de- cline than previous quarters, and we anticipate a return to growth in 2024,” Coleman said. Sales in the company’s essential dental solutions business, which is made up of endodontic, restorative and preventive products, increased by 4.5%. CEO Simon Campion said that a 7% drop in sales of connected technology solutions had been “more than expected, mainly due to equipment and instruments with softness in imaging, which we anticipate will continue in 2024”. For the full year, Dentsply Sirona posted net sales of just under US$4 billion (a 1.1% increase), and the company ended the year with an operating loss of US$85 million— a substantial improvement on its operating loss of US$937 million from 2022. Campion told analysts that Dentsply Sirona had ex- ecuted critical transformational initiatives during the year, including cost-saving initiatives and an expansion of training and education: “In 2023, we were proud to offer over 9,200 training and education courses globally through live, online and hybrid formats, which reflects about a 30% increase compared to the prior year,” Campion said. Emerging markets perform strongly for Straumann Group Fourth-quarter sales at Straumann Group totalled CHF 624 million (€669 million), a year-on-year increase of 5.5%, or 13.2% on an organic reporting basis. Sales in North America decreased by 2.0% during the period, and those in the EMEA region increased by 0.4%. The Asia Pacific and Latin America regions were stronger, showing sales increases of 26.7% and 16.1%, respectively. Latin America performed strongest for Straumann in 2023, having 16.3% sales growth for the full year; however, full-year sales performance was more subdued in the EMEA and North America regions, which together account for some 70% of the company’s total business. EMEA sales for 2023 reached CHF1.05 billion, a year- on-year increase of 3.7%, and North American sales of 07 1 2024