Henry Schein is looking to significantly expand sales of its dental products in China and is actively seeking partners there, CEO Stanley Bergman told Bloomberg Businessweek.
The dental market in China is currently valued at $400 million to $600 million and is expected to double in the next five years, according to Bergman. He expects China to eventually become the largest provider of dental services in the world, he told Bloomberg.
The ratio of dentists to patients is 1-to-10,000 in China, compared with 1-to-3,500 in Singapore and 1-to-1,200 in Japan, according to Valliappan Subramaniam, operations director with Q&M Dental Group in Shanghai.
Only 8% of the Chinese population currently visit the dentist annually, compared with 45% of people in Singapore, the story noted.
