Align Technology, Inc. ALGN

• ClinCheck Live Update for 3D controls enables real-time ClinCheck treatment plan modifications that improve practice productivity significantly, while also improving quality of treatment plans
• Invisalign Practice App provides mobile integration with the Invisalign Doctor Site (IDS) and enables doctors to manage their practice at their fingertips.
• Invisalign Personalized Plan (IPP) automatically applies a doctor’s specific treatment preferences for comprehensive cases, enhancing efficiency and step-changing treatment planning consistency.
• Invisalign Smile Architect software is designed for GP dentists to create and visualize orthodontic-restorative treatment plans for their patients using iTero digital scans, and wide-smile photo on the Invisalign Go platform. (TDA, Technical Design Assessment, GA in Q422.)

TEMPE, Ariz., Feb. 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Align Technology, Inc. (“Align”) (Nasdaq: ALGN) a leading global medical device company that designs, manufactures, and sells the Invisalign system of clear aligners, iTero intraoral scanners, and exocad CAD/CAM software for digital orthodontics and restorative dentistry, today announced Invisalign system innovations for the Align Digital Platform, a proprietary combination of software, systems, and services designed to provide a seamless experience and workflow that integrates and connects all users – doctors, labs, patients, and consumers. These new Invisalign system innovations include ClinCheck Live Update for 3D controls, the Invisalign Practice App, Invisalign Personalized Plan (IPP), and Invisalign Smile Architect, and will revolutionize digital treatment planning for orthodontics and restorative dentistry by providing doctors with greater flexibility, consistency of treatment preferences, and real-time treatment plan access and modification capabilities. Each of these innovations is designed to enhance Invisalign treatment planning quality, efficiency, and scale, and contribute to a better doctor-patient engagement and treatment outcomes.

Raj Pudipeddi, Align Technology chief product and marketing officer, senior vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific said, “Align is proud to be at the forefront of digital orthodontics and dentistry, building an integrated platform of digital products and services that provides a seamless solution to doctors to efficiently and effectively treat their patients and build their practices. Today’s announcement of new Invisalign system innovations for the Align Digital Platform reflects our commitment to continuous innovation. By reimagining the end-to-end Invisalign treatment planning experience, simplifying every step, and enabling doctors to more easily connect with their patients, we are delivering on our vision of a truly seamless Align Digital Platform that helps our doctors transform smiles and change lives.”

Sreelakshmi Kolli, Align Technology senior vice president and chief digital officer said, “It is through the convergence of advancements in digital technology, Align’s unique capabilities and know-how, and data from millions of Invisalign patients, that we are able to bring these new Invisalign innovations to our customers this year. The journey to deliver ClinCheck Live Update and Invisalign Personalized Plan has taken thousands of combined person years of development, testing, and learning and is only possible through the experience, data, and insights we have gained from over 12 million Invisalign cases. Across our innovations, we are using a combination of AI and automation, to reimagine what the treatment planning experience looks like for our doctor customers and augmenting their expertise and experience to help them create, personalize, and modify Invisalign treatment plans more efficiently and more consistently than ever before. What used to take several days can now be accomplished in just in a few minutes, and is a huge productivity win for doctors and their patients.”

Dr. Mitra Derakhshan, Align Technology vice president Global Clinical said, “We know that every Invisalign trained doctor has distinct preferences, every patient is unique, and treatment plans can vary depending on a variety of factors, such as type of malocclusion, patient age and desired outcome. Because of that, doctors spend time planning, reviewing, and modifying their ClinCheck plans, and it multiplies with practice growth. IPP and ClinCheck Live Update for 3D controls are game changing innovations that represent a step-change in digital treatment planning to help doctors achieve more personalized ClinCheck treatment plans. By using 3D controls, doctors can see greater efficiency with changes reflected in real time. Invisalign Smile Architect combines facially driven and ortho-restorative treatment planning within the power the ClinCheck software providing flexibility across treatment planning to address a variety of patient needs, whether it may be orthodontic, restorative, or ortho-restorative combined. It allows doctors to share their vision with patients, and use digital technology and tools to achieve the best quality clinical outcomes for their patients.”

A description and link to more information regarding the new Invisalign innovations for the Align Digital Platform is provided below:

ClinCheck Live Update for 3D controls – modifying digital treatment plans 24/7 in real-time

ClinCheck Live Update is a ground-breaking new feature in ClinCheck Pro that enables doctors to generate modified Invisalign patient treatment plans in real time, transforming a doctor’s treatment planning experience. With this feature, doctors can use 3D controls to make changes to a ClinCheck plan and see these changes in a revised treatment plan in about two minutes. This eliminates weeks of back and forth interactions between doctors and Align CAD designers, and also communicates the doctor’s clinical intent more accurately. Once the doctors like the modifications they made to a treatment plan in real time, they can immediately approve the modified Invisalign treatment plan allowing manufacturing into Invisalign clear aligners to begin.

ClinCheck Live Update for 3D controls is enabled for select products, including Invisalign Comprehensive, Invisalign Moderate, Invisalign Lite, Invisalign Express 7, and Additional Aligner Orders (case refinements). There are no limits to the number of modifications that can be made with ClinCheck Live Update.

Additional information will be available after general release in late Q2 2022.

The Invisalign Practice App – putting practices at the doctors; fingertips

The Invisalign Practice App is a new mobile companion to the Invisalign Doctor Site (IDS) that streamlines practice workflow by putting many of the Invisalign treatment features that doctors use daily such as photo capture, Invisalign Virtual Care, Invisalign Virtual Appointment and Invisalign SmileView simulation into one convenient app. The intuitive user interface also allows them to manage and prioritize tasks such as ClinCheck treatment plans awaiting approval and prescriptions ready for submission.

For more details on The Invisalign Practice App please visit: https://www.invisalign.com/provider/virtual-solutions/practice-app.

Invisalign Personalized Plan (IPP) – automatically applying doctor’s clinical treatment preferences

Invisalign Personalized Plan (IPP) is a new proprietary technology feature in ClinCheck Pro software designed to streamline the treatment planning process and help doctors achieve their desired treatment plans more consistently and efficiently. It combines automated and near real-time ClinCheck treatment planning software with the creation and management of doctor-specific treatment preferences, such as doctor’s prescription choices, clinical preferences, and special instructions that should be applied across certain indications or case types, such as teen cases, or malocclusions such as open bite versus deep bite, and more.

IPP gives doctors an unprecendented level of personalized preferences and instructions built into their treatment planning from the very first ClinCheck plan they receive, which improves treatment planning quality as well as patient outcomes.

Due to the individual nature of each doctors’ approach to different cases, IPP is being scaled gradually in phases across our customer population.

Invisalign Smile Architect – creating ortho-restorative treatment plans with Invisalign Go

Invisalign Smile Architect delivers ortho-restorative treatment planning with a facially-driven treatment planning approach. It combines iTero intraoral scans, facial photos, and ClinCheck software to help doctors create treatment plans that integrate orthodontics and restorative treatments for their patients. With the powerful ClinCheck In-Face Visualization tool, doctors receive a facial rendering that they can use for treatment planning and help patients visualize their smile after both Invisalign treatment and restorative dental treatment.

Ortho-restorative treatment represents a growing opportunity for general dentists, as it provides doctors with a single ecosystem for combined visual orthodontic treatment planning plus restorative dental care. Currently, approximately 45 percent of restorative cases in North America can benefit from orthodontic treatment*.

Designed for GP dentists exclusively on the Invisalign Go platform, Invisalign Smile Architect assists doctors in planning an end-to-end solution for their patients, with minimally invasive treatment plans that preserve the healthy, natural tooth structure and also deliver better treatment outcomes.

Invisalign Smile Architect is being piloted on the full line of Invisalign Go offerings only. Additional information will be available at general release anticipated in Q4 22.

*Data on File at Align Technology as of Sept 20, 2017. Based on survey data of current Dental Practitioners in the USA, doctors (n=251) were asked “What percent of the patient cases for prosthodontic procedures (ie veneers, implants, bridges, partials) would have benefited from a better initial position of the teeth?” (n=251). An average of 45% was developed from the doctor’s responses.

About Align Technology, Inc. 

Align Technology designs, manufactures and offers the Invisalign system, the most advanced clear aligner system in the world, iTero intraoral scanners and services, and exocad CAD/CAM software. These technology building blocks enable enhanced digital orthodontic and restorative workflows to improve patient outcomes and practice efficiencies for over 212 thousand doctor customers and is key to accessing Align’s 500 million consumer market opportunity worldwide. Align has helped doctors treat over 12.2 million patients with the Invisalign system and is driving the evolution in digital dentistry through the Align Digital Platform, our integrated suite of unique, proprietary technologies and services delivered as a seamless, end-to-end solution for patients and consumers, orthodontists and GP dentists, and lab/partners. Visit www.aligntech.com for more information.

For additional information about the Invisalign system or to find an Invisalign doctor in your area, please visit www.invisalign.com. For additional information about iTero digital scanning system, please visit www.itero.com. For additional information about exocad dental CAD/CAM offerings and a list of exocad reseller partners, please visit www.exocad.com.  

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements including statements regarding new product updates and releases and our beliefs and expectations regarding their availability, features, functionalities, and anticipated benefits. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release relating to expectations about future events or results are based upon information available to Align as of the date hereof. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. As a result, actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.

Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to:

• the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and safety of our employees, customers, patients, and our suppliers, as well as the physical and economic impacts of the various recommendations, orders, and protocols issued by local and national governmental agencies in light of continual evolution of the pandemic, including any periodic reimplementation of preventative measures in various global locations;
• difficulties predicting customer and consumer purchasing behavior and changes in consumer spending habits as a result of, among other things, prevailing economic conditions, levels of employment, salaries and wages, inflation and consumer confidence, particularly in light of the pandemic and as pandemic-related restrictions are eased regionally and globally;
• the possibility that the development and release of new products or enhancements to existing products do not proceed in accordance with the anticipated timeline or may themselves contain bugs or errors requiring remediation and that the market for the sale of these new or enhanced products may not develop as expected; unexpected or rapid changes in the growth or decline of our domestic and/or international markets;
• increasing competition from existing and new competitors;
• rapidly evolving and groundbreaking advances that fundamentally alter the dental industry or the way new and existing customers market and provide products and services to consumers;
• the ability to protect our intellectual property rights;
• continued compliance with regulatory requirements;
• declines in, or the slowing of the growth of, sales of our intraoral scanners domestically and/or internationally and the impact either would have on the adoption of Invisalign products;
• the willingness and ability of our customers to maintain and/or increase product utilization in sufficient numbers;
• the impact of excess or constrained capacity at our manufacturing and treat operations facilities and pressure on our internal systems and personnel;
• the compromise of customer and/or patient data for any reason;
• foreign operational, political, military and other risks relating to our operations; and
• the loss of key personnel, labor shortages or work stoppages for us or our suppliers.
  

The foregoing and other risks are detailed from time to time in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 26, 2021 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021, which was filed with the SEC on November 2, 2021. Align undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.