What can be expected from China's Tooth Valley in 10 years?

Jing Daily Editor: Liang Qiuyue

This year, China Dental Valley marks the 10th anniversary of its construction. On April 7, the 2026 China Dental Valley Industrial Development Conference was held in Ziyang, Ziyang, Sichuan Province. The conference attracted more than 600 people, including academicians and experts in the stomatology field, industry associations, well-known dental enterprises, financial institutions, and representatives from local governments, who jointly laid out a new blueprint for high-quality development of China’s dental industry.

Image source: Provided by the organizer

Why has this prefecture-level city in central Sichuan chosen to focus on such a highly specialized and professional industrial market? Let’s set the clock back ten years. In 2016, the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and the provincial government decided to plan a dental equipment and materials industrial base in Ziyang’s high-tech zone, and the “China Dental Valley” was born.

In fact, behind this seemingly “made from nothing” regional layout are three factors. First, it actively embraces industry opportunities. For a long time, China’s dental medical device industry as a whole has lagged behind foreign countries. Imported brands once held more than 80% of the domestic market share, causing ordinary people to face “hard to get dental care” and “dental care is expensive.” To break this deadlock, Sichuan chose Ziyang with foresight, aiming to build an ecosystem for China’s dental global industrial chain and open up “Silicon Valley” for Chinese dentistry.

With a provincial-level strategy as a safety net, the golden brand name of “West China” provides the technological engine for the Dental Valley’s dental industry. As the first dental specialty hospital in China, West China Stomatology has empowered the Dental Valley in an all-round way—through strategic agreements, special funds, and platform co-building with Ziyang—forming an innovation ecosystem for the whole chain, from basic research to industrialization. Data show that the Dental Valley has accumulated 155 high-value invention patents. As Han Xianglong, president of West China Stomatology Hospital of Sichuan University, said, “By building a series of interactive mechanisms such as ‘listing problems and hiring experts,’ we can connect dental research and industrial development by ‘the last mile,’ and truly achieve integration of science and industry.”

Geographical advantages are the core hardware foundation for urban development. Ziyang is located at the center of the Chengdu–Chongqing dual-core region, and it is an important part of the Chengdu metropolitan circle. It is only 18 kilometers from Tianfu International Airport, and the air-rail-public transit network is well developed, enabling efficient linkage of global industrial resources. In addition, various flexible services help boost the “Dental Valley speed.” Ziyang has set up a service branch station of the National Device Review and Assessment Center, the only one among prefecture-level cities nationwide. By building and improving inspection and testing alliances, establishing a drug and medical device application service center, and creating online service platforms such as “Zikuaiban,” the city helps enterprises produce with peace of mind.

Data are the best proof. After 10 years of development, on this 6-square-kilometer hot land, 15 global leading dental companies including Aixie, Yingweida, and NSK have gathered. It has 146 domestic and international upstream and downstream enterprises, has obtained more than 400 product registration certificates, exported 424 “Ziyang-made” products to more than 100 countries, and achieved an output value of 4.5 billion yuan in 2025. In particular, the export value of dental medical devices ranks first in Sichuan Province. The annual output of invisible orthodontic appliances is about one-eighth of the global total. The output of intraoral scanners accounts for about 40% of the country’s total. It has become the world’s largest production base for invisible orthodontic appliances and the nation’s largest production base for intraoral scanners.

At present, the global dental industry is entering a golden period of development. 《In-depth Research on the Market of China’s Medical Dental Materials Industry from 2025 to 2031 and Forecasts of Development Trends》 shows that in 2023, the global medical dental materials industry market reached 25.1 billion US dollars, and by 2028, the market size is expected to grow to 42.1 billion US dollars, demonstrating strong development potential. Meanwhile, with improvements in the living standards of our residents, awareness of oral health has increased significantly. In addition, as the pace of population aging accelerates, demand for dental materials in China is increasing day by day. It is expected that by 2030, the domestic dental medical services market size will exceed 430 billion yuan.

Looking across the country, besides Ziyang, other cities that have officially announced development of the dental industry include Foshan in Guangdong, Changzhou in Jiangsu, Duchang in Jiangxi, and Daxing in Beijing, among others. For example, in 2024, Foshan announced that the construction of the “Southern Dental Valley” officially kicked off, aiming to build a world-class hub for distribution of dental products; Wuxi in Jiangsu is working to grow a digital dental medical device industrial cluster… In short, these cities each focus on their own strengths in terms of location advantages and industrial foundations, and together they form a city map for China’s dental industry.

Against the backdrop of the windfall opportunities for global dental industry development, with traditional first-tier international dental centers such as Cologne, Chicago, and Osaka in front, and local regions “racing from behind” to catch up, what can be expected of the next 10 years of China Dental Valley? Worth noting is that at the industrial conference, Ziyang’s vice mayor Liu Jianhua introduced the next plan for China Dental Valley with the determination of “starting a second venture,” and will focus on “four focuses and four efforts,” striving to rush toward a 10-billion-yuan-level industrial cluster and work hard to build a world-renowned intelligent manufacturing base for dental medical devices and a broad pan-dental health industrial base.

And “dental intelligent manufacturing,” no doubt, is the key to Ziyang’s next breakthrough in the dental industry track.

Jing Daily News