COLTENE®

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The company strives to exemplify its motto, “The Brands You Trust”

History of Coltene

Since merging the Swiss company, Coltène, with the North American company, Whaledent, in 1990, the blended company, COLTENE® has grown significantly throughout the years by acquiring brands and companies like Hygenic®, Roeko®, Diatech®, Cutting Edge Instruments, and Vigodent.

Since 2012, the combined Coltène/Whaledent brand unified under the COLTENE brand logo has brought polymer chemistry-based impression and filling materials, a broad range of high-precision mechanical instruments, dental pins and posts, carbide and diamond burs, and other rotary instruments, as well as a comprehensive offering in the area of hygiene and patient safety to international markets through sales partners.  COLTENE’s overarching brand is now recognized worldwide with a fresh new flag design introduced in 2014. 

COLTENE has its world headquarters in Altstatten, Switzerland, and maintains production facilities in Germany, Hungary, and Brazil, and an American headquarters in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The Cuyahoga Falls location is home to 325 employees, including a field sales team based throughout North America. Products produced in Cuyahoga Falls include ParaPost®, TMS Link® parapulpal pins, BioSonic® Cleaners and Solutions, HyFlex® File systems, Alpen® Rotary Instruments, PerFect® TCS Tissue Contouring System, Pindex® Modeling System, Hygenic® Wax and Acrylics, and many other products used by dental professionals and held in high esteem by them for many years. The company tagline, “The Brands You Trust,” has become synonymous with the COLTENE suite of products.

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Coltene endodontic focus 

Endodontics is one of the major focuses for the company during the past 3 years. COLTENE has a complete line of endodontic products that aid the endodontic professional and general practitioner alike. The Hyflex® CM™ NiTi files offer clinicians up to 300% more resistance to cyclical fatigue, helping reduce the incidence of file separation. HyFlex® CM™ NiTi files are manufactured utilizing a unique process that controls the material’s memory, making the files extremely flexible but without the shape memory of other NiTi files. This gives the file the ability to follow the anatomy of the canal very closely, reducing the risk of ledging, transportation, or perforation. COLTENE offers 4-hour workshops nationwide led by an Endodontist focused on helping General Practitioners improve their endodontic skills. 

The Endodontist has a full complement of products from COLTENE that provide everything necessary for a complete Root Canal Therapy treatment. Starting with Endo-Ice® for diagnosis and Hygenic Dental Dam and Dental Dam Clamps for isolation, the clinician is ready to begin shaping the canal with Alpen® Rotary Instruments, BioSonic® Piezo Tips, HyFlex® Hand Files and Rotary Files, and CanalPro Irrigation System. Once the canal is shaped and cleaned, the dentist can choose Hygenic® SpectraPoint®* for drying, and Greater Taper GuttaPercha Points or GuttaFlow® 2 for obturation. If needed, he/she can place ParaPost with ParaCore® cement and Core Buildup. The patient can then be sent to his/her personal dentist for the crown placement. 

Additional corporate focus products

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In addition to Endo, COLTENE is dedicated to two other product lines, Hygiene and Restorative. In 2013, the company introduced the BioSonic SUVI® piezoelectric scaler, with multiple units in the line as well as a large assortment of tips.  SUVI can be used just for hygiene, but with tips for Perio and Endo; just about every practitioner in the office can use this machine. Four models are available, two with air polishing capabilities.  SUVI has a unique handpiece that has a soft grip (removable for autoclaving) and a band of LED lights at the tip that brightly illuminates even the darkest posterior areas of the patient’s mouth. Other unique features of SUVI include a foot pedal that controls the unit without interruption, and water control on the handpiece itself. To support the continuing education of the practitioner, COLTENE offers Hygiene courses worth 3 CE credits.

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In 2011, COLTENE launched COMPONEER, an exciting and unique product that serves as the first anterior composite bonding system with veneer “shells” that help even the newest dentist in the office complete a beautiful smile for his/her patients. Hands-on demonstrations by COLTENE reps at Lunch and Learns, plus 4-hour CE courses in the United States and Canada by AACD-accredited lecturers, help clinicians learn how to offer their patients who cannot afford porcelain veneers this option for an anterior mouth restoration.  At about half the cost of porcelain, dentists have the opportunity to call back those patients who couldn’t afford the porcelain option, and grow their practice with revenue that would otherwise have been lost.  

COMPONEER® complements the rest of the Restorative line of products offered by COLTENE, including Synergy D6 composite, One Coat Bond adhesive, and another product launched in 2012, the S.P.E.C. 3®LED light.  Both dentists and dental assistants find the S.P.E.C. 3 lightweight and easy to use, with a powerful Lithium Polymer battery that has capacity to perform 300 10-second cures between charges. Multiple curing modes provide maximum functionality in any clinical situation: standard is designed to cure 2 mm of composite in 5 seconds; 3K mode allows for a more rapid curing time of 1 second for 2 mm of composite. A third option – Orthodontics mode – cures a full arch of brackets with two 3-second intervals per bracket.

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Additional Coltene North America focus items

Michael Nordahl, a 30-year COLTENE veteran, is General Manager of the North American Headquarters and is also in charge of Global Business Development. A large amount of COLTENE’s assets are invested in development activities, and it is up to Nordahl to help target products of the future.  Development is planned far in advance by COLTENE’s R&D and marketing teams, with validation through research and customer interaction to ensure that COLTENE releases new products that provide improved clinical results, such as the ones previously shown. Nordahl says, “We have competent people who understand the needs of the end-user.  Every new product undergoes extensive field-testing by dentists and opinion leaders.

“The evolving dental consumer is another facet of the product development equation.  There now exists a group of patients who not only seek dental health but also extend that desire to highly cosmetic transformations. Some patients now visit the dental office, not only to have certain things fixed but with a list of demands and questions about how to change other aspects of their smile,” Nordahl continues. COLTENE offers education materials for dentists who do COMPONEERs, which dentists can use in their offices (brochures and posters) and promote in their statement mailings (stuffers) that cater to that patient.

“Another group that cannot be ignored is the ‘baby boomers’ who were born between 1946 and 1964, that are entering retirement. This group shares characteristics that include a great concentration of wealth, they are prolific consumers, they are well-educated, and they are living longer because they are not only very conscious about their health but also their beauty,” says Nordahl.140722 CP Coltene 06

Community-minded

COLTENE believes in shared responsibility.  “The dental industry can be described as a community and we can all grow — professionally and personally — by giving back to this community. Two issues that immediately come to mind are education and the underserved,” says Nordahl. “Education, through dental schools, hygiene and assisting programs, lab training, and so on, is fundamental to the future of dentistry. A pool of well-educated people entering the profession is necessary for the stability and development of the dental community.” Through its grants program, COLTENE supplies a substantial amount of products globally to dental and hygiene schools every year.

Nordahl says another issue of national importance is access to care for the underserved populations in this country. COLTENE has a wide range of initiatives that help give back to these struggling populations. “We have a long list of dental professionals who engage in mission work inside and outside of the U.S. and others who volunteer in clinics in our own cities.” COLTENE’s donations program shares dental supplies with many 501 (c) (3) organizations and views this as a principal responsibility to the marketplace.

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