To cement or to screw – that is the question. Not anymore, startup RODO Medical has added a new option. Reversible retention using a shape memory metal dental retention system which uses one or more compression plates made from various shape memory materials, e.g., nickel-titanium alloys such as Nitinol. By applying energy via heat or electrical energy, the memory metal elements change shape. To remove a crown, energy is applied via a wand and the memory metal retentive element shape
In a deal worth $13.35, which has been approved by both companies’ boards, positions Zimmer, based in Warsaw since 1927, to become the second largest company by revenue in the $45 billion global market for artificial knees, hips and other orthopedic and bone-mending implants. The acquisition price, which includes the assumption of debt, consists of $10.35 billion in cash and $3 billion in Zimmer shares. The Zimmer-Biomet merger is the largest in the medical-devices industry since Johnson & Johnson purchased
The FDA (US Food and Drug Agency) is proposing to reclassifying blade implants in a possible come-back for this type of implant. In a FDA press release they are proposing to change the classification from Class III devices to Class II devices because the benefits of blade-form implants “outweigh the risks enough to justify reclassifying the implants from class III, requiring premarket approval, to class II, requiring premarket notification with special controls,”. Class II medical devices are of “medium risk,”
Dental Implant Prices Decline by 3.3% in Europe as Practitioners Purchase Implants From Low-Cost Manufacturers, According to Millennium Research Group. Average selling prices of dental implant fixtures and final abutments have decreased 3.3% and 8.1%, respectively, over the past year. This occurred as dentists attempted to maintain profitability during the economic crisis by demanding greater discounts and increasingly purchasing implants from low-cost manufacturers.
AstraZeneca is considering spinning off a Swedish business that makes dental implants and medical devices for $2bn (£1.25bn). The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said today that it had hired JP Morgan Chase to help with a strategic review of the firm. In 2009 the industry suffered its weakest year, with sales falling by 3% to 5%. This year the market has been flat but it is slowly recovering. Potential suitors for Astra Tech include US rivals such as privately held Biomet, along
A Las Vegas dentist has filed a FDA Med Watch report regarding the integrity and therefore sterility of Nobel Biocare Replace Implants. To quote from the report: “I have experienced substantial and unexplainable failures with Nobel Biocare`s (“Nobel”) Replace(TM) Implants. Of 88 consecutively placed implants,34 required removal due to pain or infection for a failure rate of 38.6% (Attachment #1). I doubt these failures are caused entirely by my case selection or surgical skill because I also recorded the clinical
Dental implant makers lost their shine as a recession-proof investment during the global crisis, which turned fixing smiles into a luxury for consumers who struggled to pay for non-essential work on their mouths. “In spite of their rather functional nature, implants are similar to luxury goods in the sense that they are expensive, discretionary items,” Jefferies analyst Stephan Gasteyger said. The dental implant market earned a reputation for being recession-proof by maintaining double-digit growth rates in prior downturns, but the
Numerous dental implant company`s have sprung up over the last 3 years that aim to deliver either very similar designs or almost direct copies of established company`s design. These clone implants are often substantially less expense i.e. 1/4 the cost of full service dental implant company`s implants. In addition to mimicking the implant, they have also expanded into compatible prosthetic parts and coverscrews. Especially prominent clone makers Blue Sky Bio (Clone: Straumann, Nobel Biocare and Zimmer) and Dr. Niznick`s Implant
Keystone Dental, funded by private equity firm Warburg Pincus, has settled an unfair competition lawsuit from Noble Biocare for $2million. “The settlement terms provide for Keystone Dental to pay $2 million to Nobel Biocare and that Keystone Dental not hire or solicit any current Nobel Biocare employee through February 1, 2009,” the world`s largest maker of dental implants said in a statement. Nobel Biocare filed a lawsuit in late 2007, saying Keystone Dental systematically targeted and hired Nobel Biocare`s sales
Implant pioneer Gerald Niznick`s Implants Direct concept of internet-based factory-direct-to-dentist implant sales plans on launching a copy of the Straumann implant design in September. Having already successfully marketed a copy of Nobel Biocare`s implant designs. Read this interview with an European trade journal for interesting details of the strategy.
