Clear aligners brands and marketing claims: An overview of available information on the web
Publié en ligne: 14 juil. 2022
Pages: 252 - 262
Reçu: 01 févr. 2022
Accepté: 01 juin 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aoj-2022-0025
© 2022 Cynthia Shi et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Objectives
To investigate the current commercially available clear aligners related to brands, companies, Google trends, and marketing claims presented on their official websites.
Materials and methods
A search was conducted in October 2020 to identify the relevant web-based information, using three languages (English, Chinese, and Korean) and search terms “clear aligner”,
Results
A total of 75 clear aligner brands were identified and included in the study, and 280 claims from their official websites were analysed. Most (70.7%) of the companies made claims regarding “aesthetics”, 66.7% made claims regarding “increased comfort”, 58.7% made claims regarding “shorter treatment time”, and 56.0% of the companies made claims regarding “superior material”. Other claims were made regarding their “novel technology”, “superior hygiene”, “tracking Apps”, “remote monitoring”, and “reduced in-office visits”. Of these marketing claims, only 4.5% cited references supporting the company’s website claims; however, the references were mainly derived from internal company research.
Conclusions
Using three languages (English, Chinese, and Korean), 75 different brands of clear aligners were currently found online. Most of the marketing claims from the clear aligner companies’ official websites were not referenced to quality scientific studies. Clinicians and patients should critically appraise the content of company claims and advertisements.