The largest international manufacturer of dental products is Dentsply International Inc., whose market capitalisation as at 27 July 2006 was US$4.86 billion with annual sales of US$1.7 billion.

Overall there are 1.2 million dentists registered worldwide of which some 500,000 are in the western developed economies. In the UK alone there are over 17,000 dentists who will together, on average, spend approximately £170,000,000 per annum on consumables. The size of the market in the USA is believed by the Directors to be approximately ten times that of the UK and the Enlarged Group expects its new product sales through its international distributors to be successful in that market.