Dental Asia January/February 2024

Three-dimensional product showrooms provide a more immersive outlet for dental brands
“If you look at the evolution of marketing or
sales, starting with a physical shop you may
extend to a web shop where you can include
social media for example. Dentaverse adds
a new Web3 layer to your brand awareness
and presence to a 24/7 immersive platform,”
Ibrahimli explained.
To ease the transition to virtual platforms,
Dentaverse is promoting a hybrid event model.
This combines elements of both physical and
virtual events, allowing users to experience
the benefits of virtual environments while
still retaining some aspects of traditional
conference formats. The approach showcases
how the technology can complement and
enhance traditional methods.
A DIFFERENT REALITY
In the ever-evolving landscape of technology
and dentistry, Keyzer and Ibrahimli recognise
the importance of agility and responsiveness
to market conditions.
“How do you ride the wave of an unestablished
piece of innovation that is followed up very
rapidly? For example, the difference between
the first oculus and the latest oculus is
immense. That kind of made us pivot from
talking about VR and AR into talking about
mixed reality,” Keyzer said.
Ibrahimli believes that the technology
currently lies in between disruption and
deception stages, based on growth and
development models for new technologies:
“It is in a phase where within a few years or
months, new developments or innovations
will totally disrupt the environment and it
will grow exponentially. Things will become
lighter, cheaper, and more open for mass
production.”
Despite the alluring prospect of disrupting
the modality of interactions and shaping
a brand-new virtual world for the dental
industry, Keyzer and Ibrahimli stand grounded
in advancing the dental profession over
technology. Their approach is anchored in
a dual focus on innovation and user-centric
development.
“How do you build an industry in virtual
reality? There are not many companies having
this approach specifically aimed at the dental
industry,” said Keyzer.
The company envisioned a growing role
for Web3 elements within the platform. A
planned initial coin offering (ICO), where a
virtual currency is launched to public buyers
in a similar fashion to an initial public offering
(IPO) to raise capital, aims to provide a
tangible value proposition, incentivising
participation and engagement within the
Dentaverse community. The virtual token
usable on the platform would be distributed
and can be earned by users.
The company is also monitoring the
evolution of mixed reality hardware and
software where improvements in the fidelity,
interactivity, and accessibility of these
technologies would enable Dentaverse to
offer even more immersive and realistic
experiences in virtual dentistry.
“We know for sure that the technology will
only develop, and it will get smaller, cheaper,
and more accessible. I think the lesson
that we learned in 2023 is that actually
sometimes the value is not in diversification,
but in keeping it simple and stupid to a
certain extent, and going from there,” said
Ibrahimli.
Keyzer agreed: “We are going to take
every element, from the dentists, clinics,
assistants, students, universities,
manufacturers and distributor all into this
platform. That does not mean we want
people to spend their days in the platform;
in the end, what makes good technology is
simplicity and usability.” DA
32 DENTAL ASIA JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024