Startups are realigning Singapore’s dental industry

In a world where industries are innovating at a breakneck pace, Singapore’s dental market has been slow to catch on. Some players, however, are looking to change the game.

Lumiere32 is one. Raman Chauhan, a co-founder of the dental supplies platform, laments that door-to-door representatives still pitch products to dentists, a rather archaic method considering that everyone shops online these days.

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Digital and social media platforms influence buying decisions, strengthen a brand, and expand a product’s digital footprint, he says.

“Imagine you are a dentist browsing through an article online and you saw a dental product ad. You simply click on that ad, which directs you to the site of the product, and make an inquiry,” says Chauhan. “That’s how you win new customers and generate better-qualified leads, rather than employing sales reps who wait nearly an hour at the clinic just to speak about a product for only a few minutes.”

Distribution channels for medical products and supplies are still heavily fragmented, according to Chauhan.

The sales rep model has been successful for 30 years, and they are still important when it comes to explaining the intricacies of new technologies such as computer-assisted design (CAD) and 3D imaging and printing, he says.

But there are still some inefficiencies that could be addressed with technology. The key to solving this issue is to provide a one-stop digital platform for dental supplies.

Targeting Southeast Asia and India, Lumiere32 was founded in early 2016 by Priti Bhole, who is a dentist by profession. Chauhan is bringing to the table six years of market research and IT strategy consulting experience with tech clients such as Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft.

Lumiere32 currently has 650 registered dental clinics, with more than half of the clinics located in Singapore.

It is also supported by NUS Enterprise, the incubator arm of the National University of Singapore. To date, the startup has secured S$350,000 (US$255,269) in funding and is looking to close another S$600,000 (US$437,604) by February next year.

Reducing inpatient costs and visits

Julian Artopé, founder and CEO of Zenyum, a startup that customizes and manufactures transparent dental aligners, claims his company is now the biggest distributor of dental aligners in Singapore.

Zenyum’s aligners cost a third of conventional invisible aligners, which can range from S$6,000 (US$4,376) to S$8,000 (US$5,834). However, its aligners can only treat mild to moderate cases.

“We are able to drive patients at scale because of our marketing platforms: mainly Instagram, Facebook, and obviously, Google,” he says.

Dental 3D printing