Many multi-national majors of dental implants and materials could be smiling their way to this 1.2-billion-people bazaar as it increasingly tends its pearly whites, not because of tooth aches but to make costly glamour statements, if analysts are reading the trade winds right.

The dental big league that has conquered Europe and the Americas sees a hump it wants to ride in the great Indian tooth bazaar, according to Dr Ajaykumar Sharma, Frost & Sullivan's Industry Manager - Pharma and Biotech, Healthcare Practice, South Asia and West Asia.

“Compared to just a 3M and a Nobel Biocare at present, we may see new or increased presence of the brands or companies such as Finland's Planmeca, Straumann or US company Kerr Corporation,” Mr Sharma said. These companies make products ranging from whiteners, implants, crowns and bridges to lasers and chairs.

Those who have not yet tested the Indian market or launched all their brands "have to come to India", a hot dental market after Brazil and Russia, Dr Sharma told Business Line . The obvious reason: Indians now spend ten to 20 times more on their teeth than what they did a decade back; they don't go to the dentist just for an emergency tooth pluck, but to get the dentals fashionably fixed. They don't bat an eyelid at bills of Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

Nri inflow

Be it veneers, teeth-aligning braces or implants, they would rather go for the visibly, technologically and cost-wise the best, he said. The couple of existing dental suppliers rake in Indian sales turnovers of Rs 20 crore-40 crore a year.

Also, NRIs come home to get their procedures done here as it is less expensive, less complicated and needs no dental insurance. However, dental tourism was yet to grow to the levels of Thailand or Singapore.

Cosmetic dentistry in India, according to him, was catching up with the Western sartorial sense and was largely dictated by the corporate executive's globalised lifestyle. And so, ‘smile make-overs' - an umbrella term for laminates, polishes and alignments - and even mouth reconstruction were becoming as routine as root canal treatments.

Globally the dental market was tipped to touch $12.9 billion in 2016 and was growing at 9 per cent CAGR. Implants alone were a $ 3.2-billion business with big margins as you went downstream to the user.

The dental supplies market alone is worth Rs 350 crore, even if you left out the lucrative turnovers of around a lakh dentists. The devices market would grow exponentially from 12 per cent to 20-25 per cent a year in the next five years. Hospitals were investing in smart dental lifestyle clinics such as Apollo and Kaya.

Dr Sharma said, “I do not yet see the smaller retail players getting wiped out. They will continue to [make hay] and there is not going to be a major consolidation for another decade.”

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