In What Ways is Oral Health Care Industry Flourishing

Health Care industry is growing at a rapid pace all over the world. Governments across the globe are engaged in meeting the increasing demands of world class healthcare at a reduced cost. According to the report of Indian Dental Association, “Health spending is estimated to have increased by 2.8 percent in 2013 — an uptick from 2 percent in 2012 — to total $7.2 trillion, which amounts to 10.6 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP)”.

India is also keeping pace with the global trends and have health care on top priority. As per the market report, the overall Indian healthcare market is worth around US$ 100 billion and is expected to grow to US$ 280 billion by 2020, a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.9 per cent.

Dental health is giving equitable competition and if you go by statistics, people are spending more money on their Oral Health as compared to what they used to. With the advancements in the dental treatment, people are gaining trust in dentists and have started visiting them on a regular basis. According to Indian Medical Device Market “Indian Dental Market in the last 5 years has witnessed a growth rate of 5% and out of this Asian market shows the highest growth of 10% which is way ahead than the US; with them growing only at the rate of 5.5%. It is being predicted that India will soon be the single largest market for dental products and materials and it is leading to achieve this target with over 5000 Dental Laboratories and 300 Dental Institutes”.

Amongst all diseases, the oral disease has an effect on children as they are more inclined to eating chocolates, candies, and other sweets. The most common chronic Oral Disease in children is Tooth-Decay. According to the Indian Dental Association report “the decay disease is 5 times more common than asthma and 7 times more common than hay fever. More than 80% children under the age of 15 suffer from decay and over 40% suffer from malocclusion”. These diseases are also because of the disparities between the rich and the poor. The underprivileged suffer more than their peers and this contrast continues in the adolescence age. Not only children but even adults are affected with the oral diseases like decay and gum diseases. 14% of adults aged 45-55 years are affected in larger number. As per the reported statistics, employed adults lose more than 164 million hours of work each year due to dental disease or dental visits. If we talk about the elderly then as per the data submitted by IDA, “about 30 % of adults, 65 years and older are edentulous, compared to 46 percent 20 years ago. These figures are higher for those living in poverty”.

Science is advancing rapidly and this 21^st century provides advanced tools and equipment to improve the condition of the Oral Health and the diseases such as caries, periodontitis and Oral Cancers. The issues raised above are of serious concern and it’s therefore, important to create awareness about how the signs and symptoms of oral infections reflect general health status and act as indicators for other diseases.

Due to increased penetration of the Oral Healthcare products such as toothpaste and toothbrushes, the oral diseases witnessed increased spending in 2016. Due to dental awareness, the consumer today are willing to spend on Oral hygiene, which gives the opportunity to the players of Oral Healthcare market to introduce premium products relating to complete the key issues such as, whitening, sensitivity and gum health. Amid all, toothpaste and toothbrushes have the highest penetration in beauty and personal care channel and they have reached a level of maturity in the Indian market. In future, the level of sophistication will increase, as consumer’s emphasis on personal hygiene and their willingness to spend more on oral care is evolving. Toothpaste has highest growth rate in our country and it has been introduced in various categories such as gel, sensitivity, herbal, regular white and beauty and whitening. The past years have observed the higher demand of Mouthwash in Oral Care category.

Talking about the revenue generated by these products, as per the study by Ken Research “the total oral care revenues are expected to augment at the CAGR of 13.9% from FY 2013-2018, toothpaste segment is likely to sustain its dominance for next few years”. In this list, the use of chewing gums and dental flosses has increased with time and is expected to grow more. India is more focused on toothpaste and toothbrushes and other goods such as dental floss and mouthwashes are yet a long way to go.

India is progressing in terms of dental healthcare and a lot of Corporate Dental Chains are getting into the business as compared to the Stand Alone dental clinics. Dentistry is one of the specialised branches in Healthcare with a different speciality and treats a person holistically is not the job of a single speciality. The first and the foremost is the dentist himself but others such as dental assistants, dental hygienists and dental technician are equally important and with the turnover being high they also need chartered accountants and insurers. By opening many clinics, the dental chains provide employment to various people who help the profession to be more affordable and reasonable. The Stand-Alone clinics cannot have all the specialities in all the fortes of dentistry under one roof whereas the chains can afford this.

India with a population of over 1.25 billion has a huge potential market for the Corporate Dental Chains.

With the world becoming one market, Dental Tourism is growing and is turning to be competitive and interdependent, with the technological advancements. Countries are competing to provide dental care at significantly lower cost as compared to their peers. India is fast leading to become the top dental tourism destination in the world. Every year thousands of people from all parts of the globe including USA, Canada, UK, Europe etc. travel to India for affordable cost and world class dental care. Apart from costs of dental treatment, tourists find India a very attractive country to travel. Dental tourism constitutes 10% of the total medical tourism industry and according to Indian Medical Times “it was projected to grow at the rate of 30% per annum by 2015 to US$ 179,500 and an estimated 150,000 people travel to India every year for low-priced health care procedures.” We still have a long way to get into the top position in the global oral health care services.