Can You Use Air Polishing on Implants?

The global dental market reached **USD 44.71 billion in 2026** per Fortune Business Insights, with **Preventive & Periodontal Solutions positioned as the fourth of five fastest-growing categories** — behind Digital Dentistry, Orthodontics, and Implants & Prosthetics, ahead of Aesthetic Dentistry Products. For prophylaxis equipment vendors and procurement teams, this position is operationally informative: preventive care is in the growth tier but not the leader; it benefits from the same macro drivers as the leading categories without competing with them for the same patient.

The headline numbers

The global dental market in 2026 is estimated at USD 44.71 billion per Fortune Business Insights, with a range across reports of USD 44.71–49.58 billion (the higher figure aligning with Towards Healthcare's methodology). Forward projections diverge somewhat:

• Fortune Business Insights: USD 118.36 billion by 2034 — CAGR 12.94%.
• Towards Healthcare / Straits Research: USD 134–135.73 billion by 2035 — CAGR 11.5%.

Both forecasts agree that the next decade is high-CAGR, double-digit territory for dental hardware. Methodology differences (segment definitions, currency assumptions, regional weightings) explain the divergence; the directional consensus is what matters.

North America held approximately 39.18% of the dental market in 2025 per Towards Healthcare — the largest regional segment. Restorative dentistry (implants, prosthetics) dominates the regional mix in Americas and Europe; in APAC, orthodontics leads.

The five fastest-growing categories

Per Fortune Business / industry consensus, the five fastest-growing dental categories are:

1. Digital Dentistry — intraoral scanners, CAD/CAM, 3D printing. This is the category Align Technology's iTero Lumina (86% of Align's Q4 2025 scanner units) is dominating. 2. Orthodontics including clear aligners. Align's clear-aligner volumes (record 676.9k cases in Q4 2025) are the headline. Straumann's ClearCorrect is the secondary positioned alternative. 3. Implants & Prosthetics Systems. Straumann (CHF 2.6B FY 2025 revenue, +8.9% organic) is the global premium leader. 4. Preventive & Periodontal Solutions — the category that includes prophylaxis equipment, consumables, and air polishing. Our European market analysis covers the air-polishing subset in detail. 5. Aesthetic Dentistry Products.

For prophylaxis-focused practices, position #4 is operationally useful. The category is in the growth tier (riding the same macro tailwinds as digital dentistry and implants — ageing populations, rising disposable incomes, demand for preventive care) but not at the front of the queue for capital allocation in most clinics. This positioning supports a steady-investment thesis rather than a defensive one.

Regional dominance patterns

Per Fortune Business and Towards Healthcare aggregated data:

| Region | First | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Americas | Restorative (implants/prosthetics) | General dentistry (prevention) | Orthodontics |
| Europe | Restorative | Orthodontics | General dentistry |
| APAC | Orthodontics | Restorative | General dentistry |

North America's 39.18% market share makes it the largest regional segment, but it is the most mature and slowest-growing in percentage terms.

EU regional snapshot

For European prophylaxis-focused content, the more detailed EU country-level signals matter more than the global aggregate. Public market-momentum reports consistently flag three clusters within Europe:

• High-growth markets: Spain, Portugal, CEE Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). Driven by private-practice expansion, rising patient expectations, and clinic-level investment activity.
• Stable markets: Germany, Italy. Largest absolute installed base; mature clinical-education ecosystems; replacement-cycle dynamics dominate over greenfield expansion.
• Slower markets: France, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia. France lags despite strong private-practice density due to reimbursement structure and slower clinical-adoption cycles.

EU retail spend in 2026 grew approximately +2.4% against inflation of 1.9% — broadly stable. Practical implication: patient flow improving, clinic capex selective due to cost pressure, and clinics prioritising ROI-driven investments. For prophylaxis specifically, this favours equipment with clear productivity gains over equipment chosen primarily on marketing positioning.

The MDR regulatory regime continues to affect product portfolios and launch timing across European dental manufacturers; sustainability regulation is increasingly affecting dental manufacturer product lifecycles in Scandinavia and Germany.

Outside-EU snapshots

USA: retail spend +3%, but inflation-driven operating cost increases and stagnant insurance reimbursement keep practice margins under pressure. Aesthetic and preventive treatments are increasingly the growth segments within practices. North America remains the largest single tech-heavy market.

APAC: rising spending, national digital-health infrastructure investment, fastest-growing region overall. Per Precedence Research, APAC air-polishing CAGR is approximately 6.5% — the leading regional growth rate.

Middle East & Africa: small but expanding, unstable territory; growing government support for dental tourism.

Latin America: regulations improving clinical standards; strong aesthetic focus and growing private sector.

Implications for prophylaxis procurement

Position #4 of 5 fastest-growing categories means: the macro tailwinds are real but not extraordinary. Prophylaxis equipment investments should be evaluated on operational ROI (productivity gains, retention impact per the Delta Dental anxiety data, and connected-workflow alignment per the Q4 2025 earnings signal) rather than category-momentum thesis.

Concrete heuristics for 2026 procurement:

• Iberian and Baltic practices: equipment-investment thesis is most supported by macro data. Connected-platform combined tabletop systems (EMS, NSK, Mectron, Woodpecker) align with regional growth direction.
• DACH and Italian practices: replacement-cycle markets. Evaluate TCO + productivity gain more than directional positioning.
• French and Eastern European value markets: prioritise total cost of ownership; the Woodpecker PT-E's strong value-segment position is operationally relevant here.
• All markets: connected-workflows alignment (with the broader dental-hardware direction confirmed by Straumann AXS and Dentsply's Return-to-Growth Plan) supports longer-horizon investment durability.

The 2026 buyer's guide and combined tabletop systems hub cover specific systems; this macro positioning is the framing.