Ending the "sky-high price of dental implants": in addition to relying on collection, what else needs to be paid attention to?

Image source @ Visual China

Text | NBS New Product Strategy, Author | Wu Wenwu

The era of dental implant collection is coming, and we still need to pay attention to a number of issues behind it.

A mouthful of healthy teeth is the foundation of a happy life, but for many people, the wish is beautiful and the reality is cruel.

01 Post-90s teeth are not as good as the elderly?

The latest "post-90s teeth are not as good as the elderly?" The topic was on Weibo's hot search, which once again triggered a hot discussion on the topic of oral health.

Every spring festival, people who are deeply troubled by oral diseases are not in the minority, in the face of delicious dishes, hard chewing can not move, sticky dare not eat, sour sweet do not dare to touch.

This feeling NBS new product slightly author deeply experienced, in the Spring Festival in 2021, because of dental problems, the memory of running to the hospital to see teeth on the first day of the New Year is enough to remember for a lifetime.

Many people have common toothaches, tooth decay, tooth loss and other conditions after they are old, but a dental expert said that in fact, people do not necessarily lose their teeth when they are old.

The experts said that if the usual dental care is in place, the teeth of the 70-year-old may be healthier than those of the 24-year-old.

Dental care is not good, it is inevitable that oral diseases will occur, when it comes to oral diseases, many people's first reaction is: look at the teeth expensive, dental implants are more expensive!

How expensive are dental implants? There are many image metaphors on the Internet, "a mouth is equal to a BMW car", "a mouth is equal to a suite in the county".

Generally speaking, the cost of implanting a tooth is roughly 7,000-22,000 yuan, even in public hospitals, the implantation of a tooth is about 15,000 yuan, which may be equivalent to two or three months' wages in third- and fourth-tier cities.

According to the Fourth National Oral Health Epidemiological Survey, up to 97% of adults in China are suffering from oral problems, of which dental implants account for a large proportion.

02 The era of dental implant collection is coming

On January 10, 2022, the executive meeting of the State Council proposed to decide to normalize and institutionalize the centralized procurement of drugs and high-value medical consumables to further reduce the medical burden of patients.

Among them, it is clearly mentioned that "gradually expand the coverage of high-value medical consumables collection, and collect orthopedic consumables, drug balloons, dental implants, etc. that are of concern to the masses at the national and provincial levels" respectively.

This is the first time at the national level that the collection of dental implants has been proposed, and the society looks forward to the collection of dental implants in the future, which can end the history of "sky-high dental implants".

So, after the dental implant collection, how much will the cost be reduced?

Referring to the data of high-value medical consumables national collection in recent years, the price of cardiac stents will drop from 13,000 yuan to 700 yuan in 2020, a decrease of more than 90%, and the decline after artificial joint collection in 2021 will also exceed 80%, and after the implant is included in the collection, the price reduction is expected to reach about 70%-80%, and may even reach 90%.

As early as August 2021, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, interviewed 5 imported dental implant suppliers and held a symposium, which launched the "first shot of dental implant collection".

In November 2021, the relevant departments of Sichuan Province also issued a document saying that the information declaration of oral implants, repair abutments, implant repair accessories and other products was carried out.

In this way, from the state to the local level, dental implant collection has long been prepared, and the era of dental implant collection will soon come.

03 Dental implants are good for domestic brands?

Oral medicine has become a popular track and golden track in the big health industry.

According to the calculations of the National Health Commission and industry research institutions, the scale of China's orthodontic and implant dental markets will reach 27.6 billion yuan and 24 billion yuan respectively in 2020.

Statistics show that The compound growth rate of China's dental implant market in the past decade has reached 48%, and the total number of dental implants has increased from 130,000 in 2011 to 4.06 million in 2020.

But what is surprising is that at present, China's dental implant products are mainly foreign brands, with a market share of more than 90%, which is almost monopolistic.

Among them, European and American brands such as Nobel, Straumannn, Dentsply Sirona, etc. have seized the high-end market, focusing on large public hospitals and chain dental medical institutions. Even the low-end markets such as private hospitals and dental clinics are occupied by Korean brands such as Aoyatai and Dengteng.

According to the data of Guohai Securities Research Report, the positioning of domestic implants is similar to that of Korean brands, but it started late, and the current market share is expected to be around 7%.

Dental implant collection will inevitably benefit domestic dental implant brands, accelerate the process of replacing domestic dental implant brands, and benefit Chinese enterprises including Tongce Medical, National Porcelain Materials, Meiya Optoelectronics, Zhenghai Biologics and so on.

However, at present, there are more than a dozen domestic dental implant brands, which started late, and there is still a certain gap in technology compared with some international brands.

In the long run, the collection of implants will bring long-term development opportunities to domestic and foreign dental implant brands.

According to the "2020 China Oral Medical Industry Report" data calculation, China's current total lack of teeth reached 2.642 billion, the number of potential dental implants as high as 18.88 million, the potential dental implant market size of more than 200 billion yuan.

If you take a longer-term view, according to China's population base and aging development level, it is conservatively estimated that China's dental implant market still has more than 10 times the growth potential.

04 In addition to dental implant collection, what else needs to be paid attention to?

Implants are expensive, not just because of the high cost of materials.

From the perspective of the full service chain of oral health care, in addition to the expensive cost of materials, there are many other visible and invisible costs.

In the view of the new NBS product, in addition to the obvious reduction of material costs, there are the following aspects of the problem is more worthy of attention.

First, behind the high cost of implants is the problem of tight oral medical resources.

Behind the high cost of implants, the first reflection is the uneven distribution and tension of oral medical resources.

The department of stomatology in major hospitals, including public hospitals, is a very popular department, and patients generally need to arrive a week in advance, or even half a month, even if it is an emergency department, it may not be able to go to the department of stomatology.

According to the data of the Zhiyan Consulting Report, the number of public stomatological hospitals in China in 2020 was 160, a decrease of 2 compared with 2019.

Second, there is a shortage of oral medical talents, and implant dentists are even more in short supply.

Another important reason for the high cost of implants is the shortage of oral medical talents.

According to statistics in 2017, China's dentistry is in short supply, and 25,000 people can be assigned to a dentist, which is a big gap compared with 4,000 people in Hong Kong, one in the United States 1,000 people, and 800 people in Japan.

Training a dentist is long and expensive, such as 10 to 15 years to train a mature implant dentist, which is very expensive.

Therefore, in the future, China should cultivate more oral medical talents, especially more professional doctors of implant dentistry.

Third, the competition in the oral medical industry is obvious, and private oral medical institutions account for a relatively large proportion, and it is difficult to change the industry pattern in the short term.

In the field of oral medicine, private oral medical institutions occupy an important market share.

According to the above report data of Zhiyan Consulting, the number of private stomatological hospitals in China is currently 780, an increase of 57 over 2019, which is far more than the number of public stomatological specialty hospitals (160).

Taking Guangdong Province as an example, there are 21,000 registered stomatologists, of which 16,000-17,000 are in private stomatological medical institutions. There are 8,000 or 9,000 private dental medical institutions in the province, accounting for 70-80% of the total, of which private dental medical institutions in Shenzhen account for 80-90%.

Some insiders said that the collection of dental implants will reduce medical service fees, which is likely to affect the enthusiasm of dental doctors to learn and engage in dental implants, so more support and encouragement policies need to be introduced.

Fourth, oral medicine has many invisible costs.

Dental implant materials only account for a part of the cost of oral medical treatment, dental implant materials from the manufacturer factory, will go through layers of agents, and then to the hospital, and finally to the patient to use, the cost increased several times.

In the overall medical cost of implants, labor costs account for about 2/3, such as the input price of the material itself is 3,000 yuan, then the overall medical costs need to be close to or more than 10,000 yuan.

In addition, private dental medical institutions are a high-cost industry, in addition to labor costs, as well as input costs such as equipment, there are also high marketing costs.

Similarly, in the future, after the collection of implants, the cost reduction will also reduce the profitability of private oral medical institutions, so it is also necessary for private oral medical institutions to continue to play a greater role in the future.

Fifth, the problem of changing the patient's awareness of implant teeth.

As mentioned above, at present, the vast majority of the domestic dental implant market is occupied by international brands, and the share of domestic dental implant brands is very small.

At present, domestic oral disease patients have a high degree of recognition of international implant brands, preferring to accept high prices rather than choose domestic brands, which has formed a general awareness.

Therefore, in the future, it is necessary to gradually change the awareness of patients and increase the recognition of domestic dental implant brands, which requires domestic dental implant brands to continue to rise and form brand competitiveness.

At the same time, there are also some irregular market chaos in the current oral medical industry, and even some "black clinics" exist, so the industry needs to continue to strengthen comprehensive regulation and supervision.

In the future, China needs to cultivate more oral medical talents, vigorously develop the domestic oral medical industry, continuously activate market vitality, and continuously improve the overall service capabilities of national oral medical care.

It is worth affirming that the collection of dental implants will significantly reduce the cost of materials and benefit patients.

Are you looking forward to dental implant collection?