KeKe MedTech Invisible Orthodontics Combines AI Technology to Demonstrate Precision Medicine

According to the statistics of Data Bridge, a market research organization, the market for invisible orthodontics is increasing year by year. By 2029, The global orthodontic market is estimated to reach USD 13.67 billion and the business opportunity in Taiwan is expected to reach over NTD 10 billion. Orthodontics not only corrects bite abnormalities, enhances overall chewing function and promotes oral health, but also improves facial contours, making people both healthy and good-looking. Benefiting from the expiration of invisible aligner patents of major manufactures and the development of digital technology, various manufacturers have entered the market one after another. More and more options for orthodontic treatment have led to a whirlwind growth of invisible orthodontics in recent years. KeKe MedTech is also participating in this wave with invisible orthodontics combining AI technology. When manufacturers enter the market of invisible orthodontics, most of them start with the material of aligners as the entry point. Currently, the mainstream diaphragms are mainly made of PETG and TPU, which are transparent plastic materials. Each manufacturer then adds different formulas to adjust the physical properties of the aligners and use them to make market segregation.

The Most Important Key to Invisible Orthodontics: Precision

However, according to Dr. Dean Chiang, General Manager and Dentist of KeKe MedTech, the most important key to invisible orthodontics is whether the shape of the diaphragm can accurately match the patient's teeth. This means that in addition to the materials used for invisible orthodontics, the precise prediction of the shape of the aligner and the subsequent follow-up and fine-tuning of the patient's aligner are even more important.

He cited an example. The production process of the invisible orthodontic manufacturer with the largest market share is that after the patient has been scanned by a digital mouth scanner, every step of the future movement of the teeth for the orthodontic treatment is designed by the software simulation. Then all aligners are produced at once by the dental technicians of the original manufacturer via combining the professional judgment of the doctor and following the doctor's instructions, and all of them are sent to Taiwan by air.

However, Asian patients' dental arches are relatively narrower, and more aspects need to be considered for orthodontics. Since this invisible orthodontics manufacturer has relatively less data on Asian patients and the follow-up tracking is incomplete, there are inevitably failure cases with Asian users and complex orthodontic cases.

Introducing AI to Customize Treatment to Reflect Precision Medicine

In order to reduce the number of failure cases and increase the success rate of complex cases, the first step is to design the invisible orthodontics software more accurately. In addition to using the existing big data analysis as the basis, we also collect personalized continuous data for each patient, so that the patient's orthodontic treatment plan can be more accurate. By moving from the one-trial medical model to the “personalized” precision medicine tailored for the individual, we can not only analyze the differences of different individuals more accurately and formulate the treatment plan according to this “difference”, improve the patient's treatment results, reduce the waste of medical resources, but also enhance the patient's satisfaction with the treatment.

Invisible Orthodontics Combined with AI Technology

In order to smoothly combine orthodontic design software and AI application, KeKe MedTech has specially worked with Artificial Intelligence Technology Foundation to develop AI modeling. Upon completion, the combination of the Foundation's technology application capabilities, together with KeKe MedTech's rich clinical experience and field validation, can optimize orthodontic treatment plans, accurately predict tooth movement paths, and design the ideal sequence of tooth movement to create the most suitable shape of the invisible aligners for each stage of the patient. In the meantime, this AI model is expected to be released for use by allied dental clinics in the future.

In addition to the introduction of AI prediction, another important application of the technology is the new medical materials. AI combines with existing technologies such as oral scanning to enable each patient to choose the most appropriate medical materials; at the same time, AI can also accelerate the selection and testing of new materials. Coupled with the aligner production by the licensed institutions of the patented process, it means that the design of the treatment process, the orthodontic design software and the aligners manufacturing are all completed in Taiwan,further forming a new digital dental ecosystem.