The startup Impress has started manufacturing invisible orthodontics in the Zona Franca of Barcelona, which are used by adult patients in the hundred clinics it owns in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom, either with its own centers or by sharing spaces in other dental clinics.
Impress's forecasts place annual production at two million invisible orthodontics by the end of 2022, given the demand its orthodontic centers are registering, with an average of 60 patients daily. Regarding turnover, the company does not share forecasts until 2021 closes.
This health tech, founded in 2019 in Barcelona by Russian entrepreneurs Vlamidir Lupenko, Khaled Kasem, and Diliana Lupenko, has invested 10 million euros in a 1,500 square meter industrial warehouse on Botànica street, where it has installed advanced 3D printers from HP and Carbon. Progressively, it will stop importing aligners from Germany, Switzerland, and the United States.
The factory expects to employ up to 130 people, who will join the 600 employees the company has in its respective clinics across Europe and at its headquarters in Barcelona. In the city center, Impress has a team of software programmers, industrial engineers, analytics and computing experts, and application specialists who work on the digitalization of the entire process, from the initial oral analysis to the implantation and control process of the orthodontics.
The company argues that it "has democratized the sector" for adult orthodontics with consolidated dentition, according to its managers, as adult patients access treatment at more adjusted prices and by eliminating bi-weekly visits to their dentist or orthodontist. Currently, the client who visits Impress's orthodontic centers is an adult between 24 and 40 years old who wants to improve the appearance of their smile or correct occlusion problems, among others, "although they also receive, if necessary, prior treatments in case their dentition presents any type of anomaly," they explain.
The patient makes a first in-person visit to the clinic, where a complete oral check-up is performed and their needs are addressed, to receive a prescription for the most suitable treatment after a week and to have the invisible aligners they must use at home. These are processes that have a varied duration, depending on each case, and that reduce the cost of traditional orthodontics by half ---to about 2,200 euros---, according to Marcel Queralt, chief product officer of Impress. During the treatment, the user receives the necessary instructions and the revisions considered precise to carry out an online and offline follow-up that ensures its success.
For the youngest, the brand has just opened the first clinic specialized in adolescents, Teens, offering them an alternative to traditional Brackets orthodontics, in an annex space to the Impress flagship clinic, inaugurated in 2019 on Calle Roger de Llúria. In this case, a periodic in-person follow-up is carried out at the clinic, to confirm that the treatment is working correctly and that the adolescent is following the guidelines indicated by the team of medical professionals, always orthodontists and hygienists.
In less than two years, Impress has treated more than 22,000 smiles and now has a presence in more than 75 European cities. In the coming months, the company plans to increase the number of care centers in France and the United Kingdom, countries it has entered this year.