TAV Dental, a division of TAV Medical, is a family-owned company with four decades of experience in product design, mould fabrication and injection-moulding of medical products. TAV Dental focuses on the manufacturing of dental zirconia products, using the advanced CIM (Ceramic Injection Moulding) technology. Compared to conventional machining processes, the CIM technology offers far greater possibilities in terms of parts design, complexity, thread accuracy, repeatability etc. to be produced in efficient and cost-effective volume production.

At IDS 2015, EDIJournal spoke with TAV Medical’s CEO Oded Ben-Shabat.

What made you enter the complex field of zirconia implants to begin with? We had begun with prosthetic parts. After having accumulated vast experience with this material, we felt confident to introduce a zirconia implant into the market. Our experience with the injection-moulding technology goes back several decades; we started supplying medical products to leading global medical companies nearly 30 years ago. Our company has gained worldwide recognition as a leading supplier in the medical industry. The CIM technology offers enormous advantages in terms of design, mechanical properties and manufacturing capabilities.

Which kind of standard design do your zirconia implants offer? We have both a one-piece and a two-piece design. When designing a zirconia implant, we think different – we think zirconia, and all the product characteristics must be defined to meet the needs of this material. We developed a two-piece implant with an internal hex for a screw-retained restoration. Our vision is to take the dental industry a major step into the future. The metal-free option together with reliable osseointegration, superior mechanical properties, biocompatibility and highly aesthetic results has now become reality. This two-piece design no longer targets a niche market – this premium implant is now a viable alternative to standard titanium implants. TAV Dental’s greatest advantage is that we manufacture our own products, in-house and all under one roof.

What are the special characteristics of TAV Dental? The company’s core values have always been precision, passion and partnership. We are very passionate about what we are doing on a day-byday basis. We believe that people with passion can change things and make a difference. Our inspiration when marketing our zirconia implant comes from Steve Jobs’ words: “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.”

Does TAV Dental cater to the final user, to the dental practitioner or rather to implant manufacturers that want to extend their line of products by a ceramic implant? We are selling our zirconia products under our brand, but we also provide them to other implant companies to sell under their label. However, this new implant will be an exclusive product of TAV Dental. We believe it will be the flagship product of the company. Our vision for this new implant is to redefine the quality of zirconia dental implants and their performance. With this vision, we are committed to leading the dental market into a new era of high-quality, high-precision aesthetic products and to make these premium implants a common product all over the world.

Thank you very much for your time and this interview.