Clear Aligners Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Increasing adoption by orthodontists and dentists: One of the major growth drivers is the increasing adoption of clear aligners by orthodontists and dental professionals. The clear aligner assists medical professionals with operational efficiency and ultimately enhances patient satisfaction. Additionally, advanced digital tools and software development have facilitated the designing, manufacturing, and monitoring of clear aligner treatments for more convenience, thus further increasing the adoption rate. Moreover, the increase in demand by patients for discreet and convenient orthodontic solutions has led most dental professionals to offer clear aligners as a premium treatment; therefore, driving revenue growth and practice expansion. Thus, clear aligners are to be a standard of care for patients.
• Advancement in clear aligner material: Material science development has played a significant role in the making of clear aligners that include flexibility, strength, and wear resistivity consequently making them more comfortable, durable, and efficient orthodontic appliances. For instance, clear aligners have been made more transparent, elastic, and less prone to cracking with the introduction of polypropylene and polyethylene thermoplastic materials. The integration of smart materials and shape-memory alloys, for instance, will further revolutionize the clear aligners market with appliances adaptive to the alterations of oral environments and send real-time feedback to patients and practitioners. The evolvement in material science has drastically enhanced performance in clear aligners and improved patient outcomes, which drives growth and innovation in this market.
• Rising disposable income: Key trends contributing to the growth of the clear aligners market include the rising consumer disposable income in emerging markets as well as developed countries. This trend is especially seen in emerging economies since the middle-income population has increased significantly and seeks advanced dental services.  Moreover, sources of funds and insurance expenditures for orthodontic treatments are also on the higher side, which contributes to the broader acceptance of clear aligners to more consumers and thereby contributes to the market growth. This essentially implies that levels of spending will increase due to increased disposable incomes and eventually will lead to an increase in revenue growth and market size.

Challenges

• Complexity in treatment: Treatments involving clear aligners are sensitive, impelling minute planning and execution, thus it may be challenging for dental professionals with limited skill sets. Complexity in planning and designing a treatment can lead to errors, delays, and suboptimal outcomes of the treatment, eventually affecting patient satisfaction and treatment success. Further, many clear aligner treatments consist of multiple stages, each of which has to be carefully monitored and adjusted-often very time-consuming and labor-intensive.Apart from this, serious orthodontic anomalies, including heavy overbites or underbites, may present a challenge about the possibility of their correction utilizing clear aligners, requiring deeply developed skills and expertise from dental professionals.
• Limited insurance coverage: A major obstacle in the clear aligners market is the limited insurance coverage, most of the plans fail to cover the full cost of treatments. The reason for this limited coverage is clear aligner treatments have largely been considered elective or cosmetic rather than medically necessary treatments. Patients mostly rely on third-party financing providers to cover treatment costs. Lack of harmony between clear aligner manufacturers and dental professionals in teaching patients regarding the benefits and treatment costs, results in continuing to look for other alternative financial options in making clear aligner treatments available.