Barriers to entry in dental implant industry - Eternal Flames or Roman Candles?

[WhoIsWarren]

Hi,

 

See below a link to an article exploring the competitive advantages and barriers to entry in the dental implant industry, which some of you may be familiar with through two Swiss companies, Straumann and Nobel Biocare.  On the surface it would appear the barriers are high; on further inspection it's not so clear.

 

I genuinely think this is an excellent article for anyone considering investing in this industry, but I also believe there are broader lessons to be learned.  Most companies' moats are "Roman Candles", not "Eternal Flames".

 

If anyone has good insights into the dental implant market that can help us better understand this puzzle we'd genuinely love to hear from you.

 

http://www.valueinstitute.org/viewarticle.asp?idIssue=1&idStory=127

[claphands22]

I was planning to go to dental school in undergrad. The best forum for practicing dentist can be found at "Dental Town." Filled with fairly anonymous dentists willing to lend their opinion.

 

Be warned, after you've read dental town for a while, you might become cynical on the whole profession. Dentistry suffers massively from principal-agent issues.

[Guest longinvestor]

Not sure how implants are involved but the largest player of the dentist office equipment space is Danaher corporation. They now own some of the global major brands in the D.O. space.

[rogermunibond]

http://www.sirona.com/en/company/about-sirona/

 

The Sequoia fund has a decent size stake in SIRO. Spun off from Siemens. Digital CAD/CAM systems replace the old plaster impressions for bridge, implant, and orthodontry.

[CorpRaider]

How much longer until they can implant or stimulate growth of real teeth?  HBIO grew and implanted several new trachea for pete's sakes. 

[WhoIsWarren]

I was planning to go to dental school in undergrad. The best forum for practicing dentist can be found at "Dental Town." Filled with fairly anonymous dentists willing to lend their opinion.

 

Thanks claphands, that's interesting, will check Dental Town out.

 

Do you have any sense for how 'rep-free' sites such as Dental Town are?  A lot of the time it feels like responses are from dental implant sales reps who are posing as dentists.

[claphands22]

I didn't notice many reps on there. There are lots of dental accountants and business consultants. There probably are reps, but I didn't notice them.

[Cunninghamew]

http://www.sirona.com/en/company/about-sirona/

 

The Sequoia fund has a decent size stake in SIRO. Spun off from Siemens. Digital CAD/CAM systems replace the old plaster impressions for bridge, implant, and orthodontry.

 

I almost invested in SIRO and actually sent emails to my dentist and a friend who is a dentist asking about the technology. They acted like it was revolutionizing the practice. I can dig up those emails if anyone is interested in the company. I never made an investment, because I thought once the market was saturated with their technology it was end of story. I was hoping there would be good reoccuring rev. from selling the molds for the cerac machines (that SIRO makes), but this was unclear and I passed.  Needless to say the stock is up about 90% since my decision to not invest. It feels like the stuff I research and forgo investing in always does better than the stuff I do, but oh well. Better to pass up potential gains than to grab real losses.

[Phaceliacapital]

Funny, I mailed to dentists today after reading about the CEREC technology.

 

What was your feedback?

 

Thanks