Kind of mouth is comparable to buying a BMW car, how do "business in the mouth" create huge profits
Author: Lin Zhi Yin
After taking his father to take the dental film, the doctor quoted Gao Ruiqiu the price. It costs 30,000 yuan to grow 2 teeth.
"I was stunned at the time. I never thought that planting a tooth would be so expensive." Gao Ruiqiu told the CBN reporter. After thinking about it, she decided to take her father to another hospital. In the end, her father was finishing the planting. After 4 teeth, it cost more than 20,000 yuan.
She sighed that one month's salary was so "destroyed."
On major social media, narratives similar to "Knowing your teeth are comparable to buying a BMW" are widely circulated.
In addition to dental implants, the price of orthodontics is also high, starting at ten thousand yuan is also very common.
In the eyes of most people, "business in the mouth" is an industry with huge profits. How did such huge profits arise?
Oral medicine can be roughly divided into two areas: treatment and medical aesthetics. Part of dental treatment belongs to the scope of medical insurance payment. my country's current policy only provides medical insurance reimbursement for oral disease treatment and surgery, such as the treatment of periodontal disease; medical aesthetics, such as Dental implants, orthodontics and other cosmetics are not included in the scope of reimbursement for the time being.
Oral cosmetology is currently the key business of many dental hospitals and dental clinics, and it also constitutes the main source of profit.
Oral implants are mainly aimed at the problem of tooth loss. The restoration schemes can be divided into three types: dental implants, porcelain teeth and removable dentures. The order of effect from good to poor and cost from high to low is dental implants, porcelain teeth, and removable dentures.
Orthodontics uses metal brackets, invisible brackets and other orthodontic devices to adjust the position of jaws, teeth, muscles, and nerves to achieve the effect of neat and beautiful teeth.
Liu Xiaopeng told China Business News reporters that he recently paid a fee for implanting a titanium alloy tooth in a dental hospital in Chongqing. This receipt covers three sub-items of implant implant surgery, porcelain crowns, and bone meal. The overall fee is as high as 1.48. Ten thousand yuan, of which the most expensive item is implant surgery, and the cost has reached 8800 yuan.
At the same time, he also showed to the CBN reporters the bills of charges for his friends after dental implants: the final cost of planting two teeth was 30,400 yuan.
According to the prospectus of China Dental Medical Group, in the first September of 2020, the average expenditure of the company's oral comprehensive treatment department, orthodontics department, oral prosthetics department, and implant dentistry for a single visit was 445.2 yuan, 6157.7 yuan, and 2976.3 respectively. Yuan, 5028.5 yuan.
Generally speaking, these medical items cannot be solved with a single visit.
China Dental Medical Group also stated that because a course of orthodontics usually involves multiple treatments, the service fee for implant surgery lasts one to two years depending on the materials and brands of the dental implants and denture crowns used in the treatment. Big difference.
Dental implants are generally made of titanium alloy. Patients can choose different brands imported from overseas countries such as Germany, Switzerland and South Korea. Dental implants are 6,000 yuan to 16,800 yuan per tooth.
A dentist told the CBN reporter that the high cost of dental implants and orthodontics is a major factor in the high cost of consumables.
“Take dental implants as an example. The cost of full-mouth implants can sometimes reach five to six hundred thousand yuan, and the cost of consumables may reach about 200,000 yuan. Dental implants require consumables such as implants and crowns. Currently, implants The vast majority of consumables depend on imports; although domestic consumables such as dental crowns are gradually developing, some of the processing accuracy may still be inferior to imported ones. The dental medical device industry has the characteristics of multi-fields, multi-technology integration, and rapid technology update. The core of the industry Technical personnel not only need to master medicine and mechanical automation knowledge, but also need to have a knowledge reserve of management, mechanics, materials and other disciplines. Foreign dentistry has been leading the domestic development for many years, and many large companies have formed a systematic research and development system. Under the circumstances, most doctors prefer to use imported consumables.” The dentist said.
According to a report issued by the Head Leopard Research Institute, dental implants, orthodontics and dental imaging equipment are currently the three major branches of the dental medical device industry with the highest profit level, the fastest development speed, and the largest growth space. In the field of dental implants, Foreign companies represented by the world's six largest dental implant manufacturers (including Noble Biocare in Sweden, Strauman in Switzerland, Dentsply Friadent in the United States, Biomet 3i, Zimmer, and Osstem in South Korea) account for more than 90% of China's market share.
In the field of orthodontics, local Chinese manufacturers are on the rise. For example, Time Angel Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Time Angel") is a representative company that mainly deals in invisible orthodontic products.
Time Angel’s recent Hong Kong stock prospectus shows that in 2018, 2019, and the first September of 2020, the company’s gross profit margin was 63.8%, 64.6% and 70.8%, which is undoubtedly higher than the gross profit of downstream dental medical service institutions. interest rate.
In contrast, the China Dental Medical Prospectus shows that in 2017, 2018, 2019, and the first September of 2020, the company's overall gross profit margin was 50.9%, 56.2%, 54.4%, and 58.1%, respectively.
"Oral medical items are expensive. In addition to the cost of consumables, the biggest cost is labor costs. For example, dental implants test the doctor's skills. The entire operation is more complicated, and the requirements for the doctor's ability are relatively high. It can be said that the oral medical items are charged. , The biggest cost is the medical cost.” The dentist said.
Essence Securities said that as the core resource of dental hospitals/clinics, dentists generally account for more than 50% of the staff, and the salary level of dental technicians is relatively high, with an annual salary range of 67,000 to 526,000 (Wenzhou City).
Take Tongce Medical as an example. In 2019, the company's labor cost was 562 million yuan, accounting for 55% of operating costs, an increase of 19.32% from last year, and the average annual salary of a single medical technician was more than 200,000 yuan.
Another person in the dental industry told the CBN reporter that compared with public dental medical institutions, the biggest competitive pressure for private dental medical institutions is the difficulty in obtaining customers. This problem of difficulty in obtaining customers has also led to the need for private dental medical institutions in marketing. Put more effort on.
China Dental Medical Group also stated in the prospectus that in 2017, 2018, 2019 and the first September of 2020, marketing and promotion expenses (including offline marketing, such as advertising in newspapers) and online marketing (such as Baidu’s search Engine optimization) accounted for a large part of the company's sales expenses, accounting for approximately 63.2%, 50.8%, 35.7% and 31.9%, respectively.
Layers of costs have created a "great profit" situation in the oral business.