Align expands beyond orthodontics; 'difficult' patients may have body dysmorphia

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

In what CEO Tom Prescott calls "our first real acquisition ever," Align Technology yesterday announced that it's buying Cadent, a provider of intraoral scanning products and CAD/CAM services, for $190 million. What makes the deal even more interesting is that it expands Align's business prospects well beyond orthodontics, making it a viable competitor in the burgeoning digital impressioning market. Read more.

In other industry news, vendors and practitioners alike came away from the 2011 International Dental Show (IDS) last week with renewed optimism. With record attendance and more than 1,000 exhibitors from all over the world, IDS once again proved it is THE show to attend to see the latest dental products and trends firsthand, according to contributing editor Carlheinz Swaczyna, DDS. Click here to read his take on the show.

On the clinical front, orthodontists are all-too familiar with the occasional hard-to-please patient. But some patients may be more than just difficult -- they could be suffering from a psychiatric condition known as body dysmorphic disorder, according to a study in the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics.

Finally, new procedure codes covering preventive resin restorations, interim pontics, and interim retainers are included in the ADA's recently updated list. But a coding expert warns that one of the eight new codes is poorly designed and has the potential for "inappropriate utilization." Read more in this latest Practice Management Community feature.