China’s dental market continues to be the fastest-growing and strategically most important market in the world—presenting particular challenges for international companies.
Ahead of IDS in Cologne, MRL Advisors published a white paper presenting the results of a February 2025 survey of Chinese representatives of European dental product suppliers.
In summary, the outlook for companies operating in the Chinese market is very positive. The highly dynamic growth is viewed as sustainable, driven primarily by:
- Backlog demand: The level of care provided to Chinese patients is still significantly lower than that in other countries, such as South Korea.
- Changing demographics: The growing proportion of older people in the population will further drive the demand for dental services.
- Rising awareness: The growing recognition of the importance of dental health.
However, intense price pressure—caused by public procurement practices (“Volume-Based Procurement,” VBP) and improvements in products from local producers—is presenting international suppliers with an increasing number of challenges.
“The familiar model—which involves simply exporting products from Europe to China through a local distributor—is under pressure.”
“Starting with marketing and brand positioning, companies must implement a more robust localization of value-added stages.”
Establishing the manufacturer’s brand among doctors—and also among patients—in China is becoming much more important than it was in the past. To achieve this, raising general awareness—referred to in China as “Education”—is one of the key pillars.
“From a business logic standpoint alone, a distributor will not be able to make the necessary investments in brand building,” says Raffel. “In addition to a subsidiary—which might be too complicated for some companies—new structures for China should be considered. Alternatively, this could involve local partners, but under the control of the parent company.”
According to MRL Advisors’ databases, more than 60% of active dental providers in China from Europe work with distributors, while only one-third operate through their own subsidiaries.
Further insights can be found in the full white paper from MRL Advisors: