Spotlight On: Indraneel Kanaglekar, Senior Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer, ZimVie
September 2025 – In an interview with Invest:, Indraneel Kanaglekar, senior vice president and chief commercial officer of ZimVie, discussed the new and ongoing trends within the tooth replacement and dental care landscape, and how technology builds solutions. “AI is being incorporated rapidly, whether in planning surgery or designing prosthetics, like teeth or dentures,” said Kanaglekar.
What trends are impacting the dental care landscape in Palm Beach and South Florida?
We operate in the tooth replacement industry within the global dental market, and as people live longer and the population increases, there is an increasing need for dental care and tooth replacement. There is always going to be more demand for better aesthetics, and better clinical outcomes when it comes to dentistry. People want to have beautiful smiles, more natural-looking smiles, and to be able to chew. For example, if we wear a denture that we cannot properly chew, that creates a limitation in terms of being able to eat the food that you want. So, there is always going to be a demand for a functional solution, such as dental implants.
As part of the dental implant treatment process, we are also seeing a lot more adoption of digital technologies. More and more dentists are using computer software for planning and designing and specific manufacturing technologies like 3D printing to create patient-specific restorative components, from abutment to crowns. Going forward, AI is being incorporated rapidly, whether in planning surgery or designing prosthetics, like teeth or dentures. We are also seeing more customers getting consolidated services. Previously, most of the dental offices were independent dental offices. Now a lot more dentists are consolidated under one umbrella. That’s a relatively new phenomenon.
When it comes to South Florida and Palm Beach, the population here has definitely increased, compared to 13 years ago when I moved here. So, there is more demand for high-quality, aesthetic dentistry in this relatively affluent area than the average county.
Which dental care products and services are driving demand, growth, and profitability for ZimVie?
At ZimVie, we design, develop, and commercialize dental implant components, as well as surgical instruments to place and restore those implants, such as drills and abutments, which are the posts on which the crown is built. We supply biomaterials needed for surgery. Those could be animal or artificial bone, and surgical membranes used in oral surgery. We also offer software-based design and planning services to accommodate the new digital dentistry trend. These are all built to meet the demands of better clinical outcomes and better aesthetic outcomes.
The fastest growing part is digital, which is the software-guided surgery services, but our core business is dental implants and biomaterials, and that still drives the majority of our revenue. Being a global company, we sell products in more than 70 countries, but our global headquarters is in Palm Beach Gardens. We have a disproportionately large presence here, and we take pride in that.
How has the changing demographic in Palm Beach County affected ZimVie’s operations?
There are more aging and affluent populations within this county, given the demographic makeup. We have a much higher revenue as a percentage coming from Palm Beach County, than overall revenue in the United States. A few factors go towards that. Besides the aging and affluent population, we are headquartered here, so our roots are here. We have long-standing relationships with some of the best and most influential dentists in the area, and we have really good salespeople serving this community.
What initiatives are ZimVie taking to promote dental care education?
In the pre-doctoral program, students don’t typically spend a ton of time learning how to restore implants. The burden of teaching them implant dentistry restoratively or surgically falls on the industry, and we take that very seriously. As one of the leaders and premium players in this industry, we pride ourselves in providing the best-in-class education on safe and effective use of our products. We recently opened a brand new ZimVie Institute, one of four hands-on training facilities globally, here in Palm Beach Gardens. We host a lot of dentists in the institute, and there are courses happening most of the time. We have oral surgeons come here, along with general practitioner dentists, and we teach them different restorative techniques or advanced surgical techniques. There are simulation labs with realistic models, and didactic facilities for lectures. There is a TV studio to record key opinion leaders on their expertise, and we can then put it on our education app, which can be consumed anywhere by the dentists. The customers are very impressed with our comprehensive facility, and they can also tour our manufacturing facility. We manufacture a lot of our implants, all of our patient-specific products, and restorative products here. Our R&D center is here, so our customers get to see that, too, adding to their experience.
How does ZimVie maintain affordability and quality as costs of dental services keep rising?
Our job is to improve the quality of dentistry. We focus on improving the outcomes, whether for functional or aesthetic outcomes. We also want to drive better efficiency. We not only improve outcomes, but also reduce chair time. When we reduce chair time, dentists can accommodate more patients every day. Because they complete surgeries faster, they can pass those time savings on to patients through lower costs, if they choose to. We make the surgery and restorative dentistry for implants as easy and fast as possible, which would improve the cost aspect. Digital dentistry is a great example. Previously, we needed to bite on a goopy material to make the teeth impression. Now, we can take it digitally, preventing the use of more disposable materials. The digital scan can be sent to the dental lab electronically, preventing more shipping expenses while still designing patient-specific products. This ultimately helps both patients and our customers improve their practice and outcomes.
How have patients’ expectations changed in terms of high quality dental care services?
We see a lot of TV advertisements about dental implant procedures, largely driven by either individual dentists or chains. Patients are becoming more knowledgeable about the options they have, and they are more likely to go to the dentist with a certain expectation, in terms of time, procedure, or outcome. The awareness is much higher compared to what it was, and that definitely creates expectation. That also creates a more nuanced and informed conversation with the dentist or the surgeon on the type of solution they want.
What is your outlook on ZimVie and the wider dental care landscape?
We are here to serve our patients in the best way possible. Our focus is on how we can improve outcomes, provide better smiles, and make our implants last longer. We are dedicated to improving tooth replacement therapy by making it more efficient and intuitive, ultimately supporting clinics in delivering better implant dentistry. Beyond that, we aim to be a true partner so when clinics purchase our products, they’re not just buying supplies; they’re also gaining a trusted resource for ongoing education and support. We see ourselves as a partner as opposed to just a vendor.
More digital technology will be adopted, leading to more patient-specific outcomes. For example, the software we develop in-house has AI embedded, which will make implant surgery planning much easier. We will continue to see these types of innovation and improvements happening in dentistry. Other innovations include how to make the implant more bacteria-resistant, so it will last beyond 10 years, and how to offer biomaterials that enable a patient to accept an implant faster than they typically would.
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