I received a question via email requesting my opinion on the condition of the US handpiece sales market, where its going, trends, which companies manufacture the best handpieces, company buyouts, etc…. This was my reply.
Handpiece Sales Big in the US.
The US is the largest market for dental handpiece sales hands down. I believe The US company Dentsply enjoys majority market share in numbers. Kavo, DentalEZ (Star), NSK, A-DEC, and Bien Air would follow, not necessarily in the order listed.
While not based on total handpiece sales, Kavo is still number 1.
The best highspeed handpiece made, in my opinion, is the KAVO 6500B from Germany. The new Kavo 6500B develops a massive 19 Watts of power. In the slowspeed motor arena, my nod would have to go to Densply which has a turbine and ring driven slowspeed motor called “Shorty” that could probably break loose the rusted lug nuts on a 64′ Chevy.
While there are many great handpieces on the market, and supply is plentiful, I feel Dentsply and Kavo carry the most weight in the industry. It has been our experience that Doctors who can afford, and expect the best, tend to lean toward KAVO.
DENTSPLY has the edge in total handpiece sales though, if you consider the last 15 years
I don’t believe I have ever been in an office which did not have at least one Dentsply handpiece. Industry direction toward ergonomics, better fiber optics, lighter materials, and quieter turbines has Dentsply playing catch up with KAVO at this time. In fact, once again my humble opinion, NSK, A-DEC, and Bien Air have better ergonomically designed handpieces than Dentsply as well.
While I have not observed the larger companies trying to absorb their smaller competitors so much, I have noticed a trend in one company contracting another to create products for them, kind of like Sears and Craftsman tools. Sears does not manufacture, but displays the Craftsman name with pride.
Take a look at the following link to Dental Products Report. It contains a fairly comprehensive list of the Big Boys in the handpiece sales industry, with links to each of their websites.