Europe Digital Denture Market Size, Growth, Share & Trends Analysis

The widespread and long-lasting prevalence of oral health disorders in Europe is one of the main factors leading to the expansion of the digital dentures market. The World Health Organization (WHO), states that Europe is the region with the highest global burden of major oral diseases, where over half of the adult population is affected, thus, indicating a vast number of dental care needs that remain unfulfilled. Particularly, severe periodontitis affects 5–20% of middle-aged adults and goes up to 40% of older individuals, hence, greatly elevating the risk of partial and complete edentulism. The problem of diseases is also magnified by Europe's aging population; according to Eurostat, as of January 2024, 21.6% of the EU population is 65 years old or older. These factors are leading to a continuous demand for tooth replacement solutions, which is why dental clinics and laboratories are turning to digital denture workflows to meet the increasing patient numbers. The digital denture workflow provides them with higher accuracy, faster turnaround times, better clinical predictability, and the possibility to produce more without having to extend the time of their visits.

The expansion of the European advanced digital denture technology market is mostly limited by the high costs of the systems and the dental procedure reimbursements being very low. For example, a system for computer-aided design and manufacturing, an intraoral scanner, a 3D printer, and a cone-beam CT require a significant investment initially, and also there is a need for maintenance, software upgrading, and staff training for which money has to be paid. Usually, these expenses are such that small- and medium-sized dental clinics with limited capital cannot afford to take on new technologies. Moreover, reimbursement for dental procedures, including digital dentures, differs substantially in various European countries and is often only partial or quite low, thus patients are to pay a large portion of the costs themselves. This situation of financial barriers pushes dental professionals not to invest in digital denture technologies and patients not to choose advanced prosthetic solutions, thereby the pace of market adoption and growth is low in the whole region.

Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) are changing the European dental industry one step at a time. They are changing the way of practice ownership, the direction of investments, and the adoption of new technology thus having an immediate effect on the market of digital dentures. Although the DSO model in Europe is more fragmented and regulated than in the US, the increasing consolidation of large dental groups especially in markets such as the UK, Germany, Spain, and the Nordics, is facilitating them to achieve scale efficiencies and invest in advanced digital workflows such as CAD/CAM systems, intraoral scanners, and 3D printing technologies used in digital denture fabrication. For example, in the UK, Christie & Co.’s 2022 Dental Market Review pointed out that around 1,300 dental practices are annually put up for sale, about 520 transactions are completed, thus revealing active consolidation in the market. An 8.6% increase in the average dental practice sale prices was recorded in 2021 as a result of a return to pre-COVID-19 investment levels, thus showing strong investor confidence. The acquisition and integration of clinics by DSOs and group practices, which usually offer NHS, private, or mixed-service models, is enabling them to centralize laboratory services, standardize digital workflows, and invest in high-cost digital denture technologies. This pattern will lead to the rapid implementation of digitally fabricated dentures all over Europe as they will have easier access to capital, workflow standardization will be driven, and higher-volume, more efficient prosthetic production will be supported.

One of the main factors limiting the growth of the digital dentures market in Europe is the deficiency of suitably skilled dentists and dental technicians who can effectively operate digital workflows. The adoption of CAD/CAM systems, intraoral scanners, 3D printing, and AI-assisted design tools is indeed on the rise, but their effective utilization still calls for specialized training and practical experience. A large number of dental clinics and laboratories in Europe are still encountering the problem of staff inadequately trained in advanced software operations, digital design process management, and the integration of end-to-end digital denture workflows. The issue of dental skill shortages is exacerbated by the disparity in the availability of training programs for digital dentistry in various countries and the fact that the dental workforce is getting older in some European markets. Consequently, the limited level of technical skills can make the pace of technology adoption slow, lead to the lesser achievement of productivity gains, and thus, continuing as rent from external laboratories will increase and the region's wide and efficient implementation of digital denture solutions will be restrained.