An Australian medical 3D printing company is hoping to take on 30 billion dollars Invisalign in the clear aligner market. By this, they hope to offer a faster, and dentist friendly alternative.

SmileStyler, founded by serial entrepreneur and Melbourne Rebel’s rugby union club chair Paul Docherty, has already signed up to 115 dentists after launching in July and forecasts revenue of 6 million dollars this year.

Mr. Docherty, however, founded utility connection business Direct Connect in the year 2004 and saw all the way from a desk in a dark room to a combined $600 million sale.

Hence, he became interested in the field after meeting an executive from global 3D printing in an eight-week management program.

Seeing the gap in the market, he founded 3D Meditech. This manufactures Smilestyler clear aligners and Serkel, a 3D-printed helmet designed to treat babies born with the abnormal head shape.

Clear Aligners – a growing trend in the dental industry worldwide

Mr. Docherty said, “While the clear aligners were 20 years old, the take-up was speeding both in the aesthetic and orthodontic space. As technology advances, people will get more comfortable doing this and it will continue to drop down to teenagers. This means braces will slowly die.”

Invisalign is currently predicting medium-term growth of 30 percent year on year. That’s big growth for the company. They do about 1.5 billion dollars turnover in aligners and have and have a $30 billion market cap.

About more than 40,000 Australians a year use clear aligners and it is the fastest-growing dental trend globally. Moreover, there are an estimated 100 million consumers in Asia with an estimated amount of over 200 million USD.

3D Meditech is the firm through its second round of capital raising after an initial investment through listed UK Firm Utilico valued the company at 46 million dollars.

Mr. Docherty sees 3D Meditech is currently in deep discussions with a number of potential partners in Asia.