Sage and SheepMedical partner to offer new aligners

Dental service organization Sage Dental has established a partnership with Japan's SheepMedical to launch a line of orthodontic aligners in the U.S.

SheepMedical's KiyoClear orthodontic aligners will be available this fall to patients in Sage Dental's 80-plus practices in Georgia and Florida. The aligners were developed in Japan to treat adult patients with severely crowded teeth.

The KiyoClear aligners feature a removable dental expander that is used throughout treatment that simultaneously creates space in the dental arch and moves teeth. The technique minimizes the need for tooth extractions and the removal of tooth enamel to create space, according to Sage.

The aligner is worn 22 hours per day, while the expander is worn only at night. Most patients complete treatment in less than 12 months.

Sage said it recently began training its clinicians on the KiyoClear treatment protocol to prepare for the program's official rollout later this year.