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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Julius Wong who wrote (151370)	10/23/2019 8:54:56 PM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217699

Re <<Low cost>> (1) As far as I can tell, and having directly experienced Align's Invisalign treatment over a 9-months period and watched the Coconut's treatment just completed, the doctor-intermediated treatment (initial consultation, scanning, smile design, treatment planning, regular checks, emergency intervention, refinement) works well for many ... the aligner protocol does not work great for rotation of teeth, but fine for arch expansion, alignment (push in or backward / forward) In order to facilitate rotation of individual teeth, attachments must be glued on to teeth surface, which cannot be by telemedicine. Due to compliance (wearing aligners 20+ hours per day, well seating the aligner, not losing successively sequenced aligners, etc etc) mis-tracking against initial treatment plan happen and when so, require barely urgent doctor intervention, else need to start all over again. (2) The Smile Direct Club / telemedicine approach works for simple cases (no rotation, and no crowding) of which there are many, and certainly enough to base a business on absent regulatory pushback (which now being organised across the geographic map in n.america), and this is where the 'low cost' invisible aligners step in. The 'low cost' is true - plastic does not cost much, and scanning is a depreciating asset. The 'low pricing' is only relative to Invisalign by Align, perhaps US$ 1,200 - 1,8xx vs US$ 1400 + US$ for doctor (3,000 - 5,000). (3) Potentially Align can move down market and SDC and the like can try to move up market, or be bought out by 3M or Ormco (Danaher) as complement to fixed appliance (steel bracket & braces) business. Fixed appliance good for lessening complications of crowding and rotation if can be done fast enough (3 months) if followed up w/ simple aligner system for refinement. The sector is heating up because Align was making too much money and having too much fun. (4) Bottom line, the water is getting muddied, made less clear, even as new approaches to expedite and accelerate the treatment elapsed time being tee-ed up. Just for example, currently the aligner treatment from initial consultation / scanning to first Invisalign in mouth may be as long as 4 weeks. Should the wait time be shrivelled to a few days via AI facilitation ... anyway, as the water is muddied, opportunities arise. (5) Additional issue w/ low cost aligners and in fact all aligners ... relapse, that which must be headed off by essentially lifetime wear of retainer at night, and retainers cost - set of three lasting perhaps 4 years costs US$ 639 in HK there should be a lot of pricing compression going forward.