Ivoclar Kicks Off IDS 2023 Celebrating 100 Years and Announcing the New PrograScan PS7 Lab Scanner

Sometimes it's good to be first, and other times it makes more sense to wait a bit to learn from those who leap out front. For Ivoclar at the 2023 International Dental Show (IDS) it was a little of both, as the company celebrated a milestone while debuting its latest innovation and teasing more to come on the eve of the event.

At a media event featuring the company leadership, Ivoclar shared a video documenting the company's first 100 years from its 1923 start making denture teeth when the company was known as Ramco AG, to today when the company is a global leader in dental materials and technology. CEO Diego Gabathuler spoke about the company's history of innovation and its future focusing on integrated solutions and an optimal customer experience.

"Our work is done in the mouth, but the magic is felt through the soul and visible through the eyes," he says while showing how a smile transformation brightens a patient's entire face.

Next up, CMO Patric Frank talked about the company's direction for future products and its goal of driving innovation beyond chemistry. The company has put it energies behind not just creating innovative products for dental practices and labs, but in helping to educate and train clinicians and technicians he said.

"The hardest job today is how to find talent and train talent to do the job," he notes while discussing the different online training formats the company currently offers.

Additionally, Frank discussed a new dental lab consulting service the company is currently piloting. The service aims to help labs increase efficiency while increasing employee retention. That was just one of a number of forthcoming products Ivoclar shared with attendees in the Innovation Room. While none of those innovations are ready to be shared publically, many are likely to make a big impression when they hit the market.

In a private interview with Dental Products Report®, Frank shared how the company approaches its legacy of innovation as it spent the last few years looking back through its history while continuing to look ahead to develop new innovations.

"That's why I came to think of it as innovation beyond chemistry," he says. "Yes, we'll launch new products, and there will be new chemistry, and that's important, but solving our customers needs is our true goal. We will speak to customers, and they will tell us, "Hey, your blocks are the best in the market. So that's fine. Our problems are different, our problems are training our staff, finding our staff," More and more efficiency is a big deal. So I think that's where innovation has many faces these days. And that's what we want to cater to."

When it comes to the future of Ivoclar, Frank says the focus is firmly on understanding customers, learning about their challenges, and helping them find solutions. This means Ivoclar isn't looking to drive the industry toward one type of dentistry but instead is looking to be a partner helping individual practices and labs find success in their own ways. Frank says part of Ivoclar's success comes from watching and following the dental industry as a whole.

"I think it's not our call to make where the customer should go, it's our job to help them where they want to go. I think that's a big difference," Frank says. "I think where we are as a company, we're usually not an early adopter but a fast follower. I think we follow once we see it's a trend which really helps our customers."

Of course, the company is still dedicated to staying at the forefront of the dental industry and no IDS media event would be complete without at least one new innovation to share. In this case, Ivoclar launched its latest dental lab scanner. The new PrograScan® PS7 is designed to simultaneously scan two full-arch models, and it can complete a scan and render 3D models in less than 120 seconds, so a technician can start designing the case 3 times faster than previous Ivoclar scanning solutions.