Who Actually Makes Your Intra-oral Sensor?

WHO ACTUALLY MAKES YOUR INTRA-ORAL SENSOR?

(And why it matters)

If you ask most dealers, salespeople, or marketers, you’ll get a confusing game of telephone:

“I heard they bought the patents from X company and now make it themselves…”

“My boss said our sensor is hand-built in Switzerland by former Rolex designers working under the original Intel team from Germany…”

“Marketing says we manufacture it ourselves in a secret location…”

“I heard that a big-name brand also makes ours on the side, so you’re getting the same sensor for less money…”

One dentist on DentalTown summed up the confusion perfectly: “My dealer said DEXIS licensed their patents from Platinum so they could create a similar offering.”

Does anyone actually believe a company like DEXIS would license its patents to a competitor? Please.

The urban legends are endless. It’s enough to make Greek mythology look straightforward.

---

So why is this so murky?

It shouldn’t be. A dentist spending thousands of dollars on a relatively fragile piece of technology should be able to easily find out exactly who makes it. But it’s deliberately kept opaque.

The truth is that most “sensor companies” are not manufacturers at all. They are marketing companies that buy the sensors from a real manufacturer, slap their brand name on them (with a nice markup), and then sell them as if they designed and built them.

---

Why does this matter?

It matters for two big reasons:

1. Price — Every extra company in the chain adds cost (and often a dealer markup on top of that).
2. Warranty & Support — The more hands the sensor passes through, the more finger-pointing occurs when something goes wrong. Marketing companies don’t want to eat the cost of repairs or replacements, so they push it back to the manufacturer. The manufacturer, in turn, has little incentive to be transparent about bad batches or recalls.

Here’s the clear picture in the U.S. market:

Companies that actually design and manufacture their own sensors:

• Jazz Imaging – Made in the USA
• Schick – Made in the USA
• Carestream – Made in France
• VaTech – Made in Korea

 

Jazz Imaging is the only one of these that makes its own sensor and sells directly to dentists, bypassing dealers. It’s the main reason we are the only company that offers lifetime support and warranty coverage that includes no-copay damage protection.

 

Every other major brand you see is buying sensors from one of a handful of actual manufacturers:

Fairchild Imaging (now owned by Hamamatsu), Hamamatsu (Japan), Teledyne, Athlos Oy (Finland), or iRay.

 

Out of the dozens of sensor brands sold in the U.S., there are really only eight true manufacturers — and only four of them make sensors for themselves.

Bottom line:

Regardless of which sensor brand you choose, pay close attention to the path it took to get to your office. That path — more than any salesperson or dealer pitch — will tell you the most about real cost, warranty experience, and long-term support.

 

The fewer hands that touch the sensor, the less finger-pointing when something goes wrong and the lower your total cost of ownership.

---