This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
spk05: Good afternoon and welcome to the Sunendo Inc Q1 2022 earnings conference call. My name is Brica and I'll be today's event specialist. If you would like to ask a question at any point today, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. And with that, I would like to hand over to our host of today's call, Matt Rasko. Please go ahead when you're ready.
spk06: Thanks, operator. Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in today's call. Joining me from Sunendo are Bjorn Berghain, President and CEO, and Michael Watts, CFO. Earlier today, Sunendo released financial results for the quarter ended March 31st, 2022. A copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will make statements during this call and include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements containing this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results, or performance are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements, including those relating to our operating trends and future financial performance, the impact of COVID-19 on our business, expense management, expectations for hiring, growth in our organization, market opportunity, revenue guidance, commercial expansion, and product pipeline development are based upon our current estimates and various assumptions. Any statements involving material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those implied by these forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these statements. For a list and description of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business, please refer to the risk factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 23, 2022 and available on EDGAR and in our other public reports filed periodically with the SEC. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast on May 10, 2022. Senator disclaims any intention or obligation except as required by law to update or revise any financial projections or forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. And with that, I will now turn the call over to Bjarne.
spk03: Hey, thanks, Matt. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. For today's call, I will provide opening comments and a business update, followed by Mike, who will provide additional detail regarding our quarterly results and updated 2022 guidance before opening the call to Q&A. Total revenue for the first quarter of 2022 was $9 million, above our estimates provided during the Q4 2021 earnings call, representing growth of 22% over Q1 of 2021. Growth in the quarter was primarily driven by continued increased procedure utilization and increased general wave console sales. As a reminder, first quarter capital equipment sales are typically our lowest seasonally adjusted quarter following heightened calendar year and demand, which is influenced by various factors, including tax benefits. Overall, we're very pleased with our start to the year. As of March 31st, General Waves ending install base was approximately 850 units compared to approximately 710 units on March 31st, 2021, representing growth of 20%. Mike will later provide more details on our quarterly financial results and additional detail regarding full year 2022 guidance. Before providing a business update, I wanted to address two topics that have had a broad scale impact across the medical device industry. First being COVID. While we did see a slight temporary slowdown in patient volumes early in the quarter due to Omicron, this did not appear to materially impact performance. Based on our estimates and what we're hearing anecdotally from endodontists, patient volumes are currently trending at or near pre-COVID levels. While our growth is heavily predicated on our ability to penetrate the root canal market and sell consoles to new users, the durability of patient volumes in dental offices is a positive sign that the end market is strong and there is demand for our technology. Second are the supply chain headwinds impacting the global economy. As a reminder, On our last earnings call in March, we communicated variability in the supply chain of certain raw materials, which caused us to incur additional costs in the fourth quarter of 2021 and first quarter of 2022. The impact has been limited to our procedure instruments, and despite this disruption, all customer orders were fulfilled in the first quarter of 2022. While our operations team has made considerable progress in navigating through this dynamic period, the supply chain environment has become incrementally more challenging. Although raw material supply variability is likely to continue for the remainder of the second quarter, we believe we have sufficient capacity to meet our revenue targets. In future quarters, we expect the risk to gradually mitigate as we recover safety stock positions as overall volumes transition to CleanFlow Procedure Instruments, which in most instances do not utilize the same raw materials and suppliers as our legacy Procedure Instruments. Now turning to quarterly business updates, starting with CleanFlow. On April 20th, we announced the full commercial launch of CleanFlow ahead of the American Association of Endodontists, or AAE, annual meeting in Phoenix. The timing of this announcement and launch was critical as AAE is our largest and most important industry conference of the year. While we have been working diligently through our limited market release, AAE was a great event which allowed us to showcase our new procedure instrument to the entire market and allowed customers to perform or observe a procedure using an extracted tooth in our booth in what we call a test drive. As a company, we have built our reputation on providing superior clinical outcomes and delivering a positive patient experience. This was in full display at AAE as the Sunenda team re-informed the benefits of CleanFlow to not only existing but prospective customers. Specifically, with CleanFlow, we have improved the general way of procedure by removing certain steps. with the practitioner now only needing to open and prepare the tooth to allow the procedure instrument to be put in place. During educational and clinical demonstrations at AAE, CleanFlow's simplicity and ease of use resonated with the endodontic community, which gives us more confidence in not only the CleanFlow launch, but to also in our ability to drive increased utilization at the practice level. As a reminder, CleanFlow Procedure Instrument works with our existing consoles, so there is no need for existing customers to buy a new machine to access this latest technology. This will allow us to ship CleanFlow Procedure Instruments to new customers and seamlessly convert existing customers. Another reason why we're so excited about CleanFlow is that we have a clear pathway to improve our contribution margin for consumables. CleanFlow is a major component of our future higher gross margin expansion and pathway to profitability. Given the simpler design of CleanFlow compared to the previous generation procedure instrument, there are fewer components which lowers material costs and allows for easier assembly which we believe will drive increased production efficiencies at higher volumes. From an operations standpoint, we have expanded manufacturing capacity and have developed strong relationships with key suppliers who have ensured their ability to meet increasing demand. We continue to strive to manufacture the highest quality product for our customers. To ensure a successful rollout of CleanFlow, we have been working to optimize every step of the supply chain. From molds to final assembly and packaging process, all our efforts are focused on scaling processes to manufacture at higher volumes. Additionally, Our full market release will ensure our commercial and clinical education teams can provide a world-class onboarding experience for new customers. As a reminder, we will continue to manufacture and sell our current generation procedure instruments for current gentlemen customers with the goal of educating and converting them over time and allowing them to transition at their own pace. Conversely, our strategy will be to primarily train new customers using CleanFlow to ensure immediate adoption. Given this dynamic and the fact that we have an approximate 850 General Wave installed base, we expect the full adoption of CleanFlow may take up to 24 months as we expand the commercial use in a responsible and considerate manner. Turning to our commercial strategy, our barfricated sales team remains an important driver of growth as we penetrate our core market of approximately 17 million root canal procedures performed annually in North America, representing a market opportunity of approximately $1.9 billion. As of March 31st, we more than doubled the size of our commercial sales team when compared to June 30th, 2021. Over the past year, a key addition is the building of our consumable rep team. We believe this team will be an integral part of our growth and execution in 2022 and beyond. Given the number of capital and consumable reps we have hired, our plan is to maintain the size of our commercial team at this level for the near term as we focus on sales force effectiveness, initiatives, and sales execution before expanding further. In connection with the expansion of the number of consumable reps and bifurcation of our sales force, we're starting to see early signs of increased productivity and pipeline generation from our capital reps, who are now fully focused on selling capital equipment to new customers. As a reminder, prior to the establishment of the consumable rep team, capital reps spent roughly 50% of their time servicing existing accounts. Regarding procedure instrument trends, we continue to receive positive feedback from new accounts that have completed our updated training protocol as compared to legacy customers. While still early, we believe this is a positive indicator of increased utilization as these endodontists are becoming more comfortable not only with the technology but also being able to treat a broader range of root canal cases. As our sales force matures, specifically consumable reps, we believe their consistent training with new and existing customers will drive average utilization rates higher as they support the clinical workflow, practice workflow, and patient demand generation for our doctors. Lastly, in April, we announced an amendment to our credit agreement with Perceptive Credit Holdings, which provided Sunendo an additional $20 million of available credit by extending the borrowing deadlines for two tranches of $10 million to September 2022 and June 2023, respectively. In addition to our strong balance sheet consisting of 66 million of cash, this restructuring provides optionality, if needed, to further support the growth of our business. In summary, we have a revolutionary technology backed by compelling clinical data and KOL support. Our focus continues to be investing and expanding our commercial infrastructure to penetrate the endodontist channel to make GEL-Wave the standard of care for root canal therapy. Additionally, we will continue to prioritize gross margin expansion and clinical practice efficiency with a full commercial launch of CleanFlow. With that, I will turn the call over to Michael Watts, Sunendo's Chief Financial Officer. Mike?
spk08: Thanks, Bjorn. As previously mentioned, Tenendo total revenue for the first quarter of 2022 was $9 million compared to $7.4 million for the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 22%. Growth in the quarter was primarily driven by increased procedure instrument sales and increased General Wave console sales. In the first quarter, General Wave console revenue was $2.1 million compared to $1.8 million in the first quarter of 2021. General wave console average selling prices in the quarter were roughly $60,000, an increase of approximately 6% compared to the prior period, while flat sequentially compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Turning to procedure instruments, PI revenue was $4.3 million compared to $3.3 million in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 29%. PI revenue growth was driven primarily by increased procedure instruments sold and a roughly mid-single-digit percentage increase in average selling prices compared to the prior year period. Procedure instruments sold in the quarter totaled approximately 66,000, representing growth of 20 percent compared to the prior year period. Total software revenue for the first quarter was $1.8 million compared to $1.6 million in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 13 percent. The increase was driven primarily by new licenses and services. Gross margin for the first quarter of 2022 was 25% compared to 23% in the first quarter of 2021. The increase in gross margin was driven primarily by improved up overhead absorption and average selling price, partially offset by increased costs relating to supply chain. As Bjorn stated earlier, we are closely monitoring our supply chain and working with vendors to mitigate any potential disruptions. As a result of our increased efforts in this area, we expect pressure on gross margins to continue into Q2. Total operating expenses in the first quarter of 2022 were $16.8 million, compared to $11.6 million in the same period of the prior year. The increase was driven primarily by higher personnel-related expenses, commercial expansion, as well as higher general and administrative costs, primarily legal and accounting, associated operating as a public company. Loss from operations was $14.6 million in the first quarter of 2022 compared to $9.8 million in the first quarter of 2021. Net loss was $15.5 million for the first quarter of 2022 compared to $10.9 million in the first quarter of 2021. Our cash and cash equivalents as of March 31st, 2022 was approximately $66 million, while our long-term borrowings totaled $30 million. As Bjorn previously mentioned, on April 6th, we expanded our credit to include an additional $20 million subject to certain milestones of which we have yet to access. We believe this funding will provide the liquidity and capital resources needed to support our growth in our current business in 2022 and beyond. Moving to our financial guidance. As we move forward in 2022, we have several positive structural tailwinds, including a larger sales force, increased underlying demand for GeneralWave, and the full commercial launch of CleanFlow. For 2022, we continue to expect annual revenue to range between $40 to $43 million, representing year-over-year annual growth between 20 and 30 percent. Given the supply chain dynamic mentioned previously, we expect our second quarter of 2022 gross margins to be in line with the first quarter of 2022. That said, As we transition into the back half of 2022, we expect sequential gross margin expansion with positive contribution from the adoption of clean flow and increased volume. At this point, I'd like to open up the call for questions.
spk05: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. The first question we have from the phone lines today comes from Jason Bednar of Piper Sandler. Your line is now open.
spk07: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Congrats on the results here, and thanks for taking the questions. So, Bjarne, I was hoping we could start with the full-year revenue guidance, the $40 to $43 million. How are you feeling with the setup here for the rest of the year, now that we're more than a third of the way into 2022? It seems to us externally like the story is tracking to or had a plan, but it would be great to hear how you see the rest of the year unfolding. And along those lines, could you discuss how you see the cadence playing out for new system sales and procedure instrument sales as we Think through the progression of the year and consider those PI supply chain dynamics you referenced in prepared remarks.
spk03: Hey, Jason, and thank you. Thanks for joining the call and thanks for the question. So, obviously, we're very happy with the first quarter of this year. And as we sit here today, we also feel good about Q2. You know, we've launched a clean flow successfully at the AAE. We see strong demand for consoles and obviously we saw significant signs of that at the AAE. We also see strong patient and procedure volumes as we, like we talked about before, we can obviously monitor these trends live here across our console install base. But like we talked a little bit about in our prepared remark, we are seeing some temporary supply chain headwinds. with specifically with the procedure instrument packaging. So because of that, we've decided to apply somewhat level of conservatism here on our numbers and reaffirm the total 40 to 43 million number despite the top line beat here in Q1. But so in summary, I would feel that we continue to feel good about that guidance. With respect to new system sales, we see strong demand for consoles. And I think that's something that was very apparent, I think, also during the AAE. Really exciting conference for us. We had a busy booth. We had great activity level. And I think that is a strong leading indicator for not just console sales here in Q2, but also you know, leading indicator for what we should expect to see into the year.
spk07: All right, that's all. Maybe just to clarify real quick, I mean, it sounds like maybe there would have been some upward bias or I don't know if you're willing to point to the upper end of that guide. I'm just trying to figure out if there's anything that's constraining you on delivering on the procedure instrument side here in 2Q or if it's just you're remaining conservative given the supply chain dynamics that are out there right now?
spk03: Yeah, Jason, I would say there's probably a little bit of both. Like we alluded to, the thing that we're looking at right now is, of course, the temporary supply chain headwinds associated with procedure instrument packaging. Let me just give a little bit more color on that. And specifically what we're talking about are the plastic lids that we have that we put on top of the single use procedure instrument kits. This is something that is in short demand right now across the med tech industry. Good thing for us though is that as part of the CleanFlow launch, we have already made step two transition to a lower cost, more elegant pouch. In other words, a different way to package the procedure instrument. So because of these supply chain constraints of these plastic lids, we're now speeding up this, you know, speeding up the transition to these pouches. And coincidentally, we have a strong, very strong inventory position on pouches. So when we make that transition, we will be, you know, I think in much stronger shape. But again, I just want to reaffirm here that we still feel good about the overall guidance for the year.
spk07: All right, very helpful, and make sure to call her. If I could ask one more, there has been some mixed feedback regarding the state of the capital equipment demand out there in the dental market, but by and large, it still seems pretty healthy in the U.S. Bjorn, you made some pretty encouraging comments here regarding activity at AAE. Maybe just talk generally outside of AAE, the feedback you're hearing out there regarding the willingness to invest in new capital and What does your funnel of sales and sales leads look like today versus maybe where we sat three to six months ago?
spk03: Sure. So first let me just give some color on AAE because I think that helps frame the question a little bit. We just talked about obviously a great activity level at the AAE which is like we think a leading indicator that our pipeline is building and that we, in fact, have a strong pipeline. I just want to also give one additional, perhaps, color on the AAE. Now, I had the opportunity to visit AAE, call it 10 years ago, when the conversation on the convention floor was really all about files. And we had large file manufacturers having large booths discussing files. Then Sunendo came along and started to introduce this concept that it's not about the file. It's about how you clean and disinfect. And we see now when we come there today, or rather when we attended AAE, the file manufacturers have significantly smaller booths. The conversation is not around files anymore. It is about how we're going to clean and disinfect these teeth. So we think that is a leading indicator for where this industry is going. The fact that we see an industry that's really ripe for disruption. So that's the AAE. Now let me just comment on the capital equipment demand across the industry. And I think obviously there's a number of different dental companies that are giving insight into the overall market. I think what's important for us is to make the distinction between elective versus non-elective procedures. We are obviously in the space of non-elective procedures, and when patients need to get a root canal, we believe they will get that root canal. So, like we've talked about before, we also obviously have a strong value prop, and I think as you have these external dynamics in the market, You know, I think doctors will look for new revenue sources. And I think, you know, when applied correctly, General Maid can really be an opportunity to, you know, really, you know, obviously, you know, improve the overall efficiency of the practice and overall, you know, increase the overall revenue for those practices. So taking all that in and kind of summarizing that, You know, we feel good about the sales funnel that we're developing and that we continue to develop into the year.
spk07: All right. Thanks so much. Very helpful.
spk05: Thank you. Your next question comes from John Block of Stiefel. Your line is open, John.
spk02: Great. Hey, guys. This is Tom stepping on for John. Thanks for the questions. I want to start on consumables with a small handful. Bjorn, can you talk about the early traction with the consumable reps so far, kind of your thoughts on the ramp or contribution to results? Maybe do you still feel good about that six-month ramp you've talked about? And then to confirm one item, Bjorn, I believe you said utilization was a growth driver year over year. I just want to clarify that. So was utilization up year over year in the quarter? Sorry, and the last one, Mike, can you help us with just how we should think about the cadence of PI utilization for the rest of the year?
spk08: So, hi, Tom, it's Mike. You know, I'll start with the answers working backwards, and then we'll go to your first part of the question. So, we think of cadence for utilization over the year. What we have talked about, and Jerry can expand upon this when we talk about traction with the consumable reps, that the consumable reps now are being introduced to a lot of their customers and they're getting very good reception on that and they're also training new customers and we have a new protocol for training that we mentioned and we believe that training protocol is driving more utilization from the start with these customers and as we go back to our new accounts and retrain them we'll see more and further procedure adoption so what we'd expect is utilization to step up sequentially as these consumable reps are able to work through their accounts over the coming months. With respect to utilization within the quarter, what we essentially saw year over year was as, at a macro level, utilization was essentially in line per account year over year. But what we are seeing is increased utilization net with our new accounts and then also our existing accounts. driving further adoption as well. So I'll pass it back to Bjorn.
spk03: Yeah, thanks, Mike, and thanks for your question, Tom. Maybe I'll start off by saying that to just give some high-level commentary on our commercial team here. I've seen a lot of sales teams across dentistry, and I have to say that I believe that we have one of the more professional sales team, not just on the capital sales side, but also on the consumable sales side. To your point, Tom, we did hire obviously more capital sales reps, more consumable sales reps in Q4 of last year. We've spent a lot of time and focus now on training these reps. And we're starting to see the early signs that we're getting better utilization in the accounts where we have consumable reps. But to our earlier point and to your question, you know, we expect to see more meaningful increases in the second half of this year. So, yeah, so we're still – I still believe that, you know, that six-month ramp that we have previously talked about.
spk02: Got it. That's helpful. If I can pivot to supply chain a bit. Sorry to go back here. And, Bjorn, you've given some very helpful color on just how you think these challenges play out. Can you just talk to your level of confidence and visibility a bit, if you're just able to flesh that out? And then as a tack-on to that, Mike, is there maybe a 4Q exit we should think about on gross margins? I know you, again, gave some good color on kind of the cadence there, but it might be helpful just as we think about maybe 2023. Okay.
spk03: Yeah, Tom, a good question. And the reason why we wanted to specifically highlight the instrument packaging here is that we just wanted to give that full transparency on what is going on. And I think for us, if we look at all the different things happening on the supply chain side, and with everything that we know today, like we alluded to in our you know, initial comments, we believe that most of these things will be solved for by the middle of this year. So that is obviously what we see today. So we have good confidence, you know, when we talk specifically about the conversion to this pouch that we just talked about, we have good confidence in that. And that is also obviously, by the way, it's another thing that will help facilitate lower margins for for the business. Maybe I just want to give some additional comments, maybe setting this up also a little bit for how Mike is going to talk about some of the elements for the margin side. Because the pathway to improved margin is something that's really important to us. And also the pathway to profitability is something that we're working on and is very important to us. And the clean flow launch, is the biggest lever that we have in the business here to really drive margins. So the faster we can convert customers over to clean flow, obviously that's going to be a significant driver of gross margin. We're going to continue to obviously work on contribution margins on a clean flow. We think we have some opportunities there as we go forward. We're also going to continue to increase overhead absorption, meaning expanding the business, selling more console, driving utilization like we've talked about. And this goes back to your earlier question as well. While we are under some pressure now because of supply chain, we see this as a temporary issue and the underlying programs that we have are on track to get us to our gross margin targets. So maybe that's a good point to hand over to you for some additional comments, Mike.
spk08: Yeah, no, I think that's a great segue. So when we announced the full commercialization of CleanFlow in April, it was a great, exciting time for us, very exciting at AAE. And we're already seeing positive momentum and utilization and feedback on the procedure instrument. So we're anticipating that we're going to see good adoption Customers are asking for it. And we'll also see further improvements in the cost structure of clean flow as we start to ramp up the volumes and it replaces our existing mold instrument. So we'll see those sequential gross margin improvements as we stated in the past. We haven't given specific guidance on gross margins, but I think the way we should think about that as we work through the volumes and improve both adoption and everything, something in order of magnitude low 30s as a percentage of gross margin. So what we expect is we exit the year and then as our volumes go higher into 2023, we'll see that uptick begin to accelerate into the year of 2023. So hopefully that helps.
spk02: very helpful. And if I can squeeze in just a quick clarification question. I might have misheard. Is the conversion to the pouch, is that margin neutral? Sorry, I just want to clarify that.
spk03: Yeah, good question, Tom. That actually helps us on the margin. So it's a simpler device, simpler way of packaging this, more elegant, and also lowers the cost of the packaging. And plus, it's It takes up less space, and it's easier for us on the manufacturing line. Perfect. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks, John.
spk05: Thank you. We now have Nathan Rich of Goldman Sachs. You're going to sound like the Nathan.
spk01: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for the questions. Bjorn, maybe to start, can you talk about what the console selling cycle looks like post a conference like AAE? I mean, it's the first time you've had one in person in a few years, and with the expanded sales force that you now have, how quickly do you think that the interest you saw at that event can translate into system placements?
spk03: Yeah, thanks, Nate. You know, I think there is – Arrange your answers for your questions. When we have a busy booth like we had at the AAE, there will definitely be a certain number of councils that are close on the convention floor. But there will also be initiations of conversations with doctors. Maybe they go through a test drive like we talked about in our prepared remarks where they clean a tooth. our sales reps will start that conversations with the doctor and how this can be incorporated into their practice. And then we may close the console a week after the console or four weeks after the console, sorry, after the AAE event. So I think the way we should view AAE is that this is really a way to really build our pipeline, not just for the quarter, but for the rest of the year. And this gave us a lot of touch points and significantly increased our pipeline for the year.
spk01: Okay, great. And maybe a follow-up for Mike. You mentioned the additional $20 million of liquidity on the credit facility. Could you maybe just talk about how you're thinking about cash needs for the business over the next year or so? And do you feel like the current liquidity levels are kind of sufficient to fund those needs that you have?
spk08: Yeah, thanks, Nathan. So when we, you know, we're looking at, like all businesses, we're continuing looking at our options and sources of capital, and Perceptive has been a great partner in that, so we're certainly appreciative that we're able to secure that additional $20 million. So we're looking at all other sources as well on an ongoing basis, but right now we're in a very good position, and our main priority is to continue to invest in the business and drive growth and in increase our general wave install base, and then also continue to support our sales team as they drive utilization.
spk01: Great. Thanks very much for the questions. Thank you, Dave.
spk05: Thank you. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. We now have another question on the line from Erin Wright of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead when you're ready. Great.
spk04: Thanks for the questions here. With the rollout of clean flow at this point, it sounds like you still anticipate the 24-month transition there. Could that be expedited at all if you did see some of the supply chain dynamics persist here?
spk03: Yeah, good question, Erin. Yeah, obviously we're early in our launch of CleanFlow. We're going to continue to execute on the plan that we have. And just to kind of give you a high-level overview of the key elements of that plan, obviously we already have some customers that are already onboarded with CleanFlow, and we're going to continue to support them. But all new General Wave customers going forward that are buying consoles and being trained on General Wave will now be trained on CleanFlow. And then the third element of this is that we are going to convert our existing install base of 850 customers. And this is where our consumable sales team will come in and play a significant part of actually converting those customers. I think you're asking a good point, Erin, in terms of are there ways to speed that up? Yes, there are. And I think we've taken perhaps a measured and perhaps a little bit of a conservative approach to that two-year conversion. But for us, the reason why we're going to continue to really push to convert that faster is that ultimately helps us drive improved margins in the business. So you're going to see on our side here in our consumable sales team, we're going to be working hard to convert those customers quicker such that we can get access to better margins quicker.
spk04: Okay, got it. Great. It was interesting how you were mentioning the change in conversation at AAE and with the focus more on some of the disruptors such as yourself and the industry here. And I guess you seem well ahead of the game, but have you seen any sort of competitive response out there? And how have the industry constituents evolved around this? And on the flip side of that, are there opportunities for partnerships across the industry as well? Thanks.
spk03: Yeah, good question. Yeah, it's really fascinating to see that conversion and kind of how the conversations have changed at the AAE because those large file companies that had those large booths, they don't have large booths anymore and they don't have a strong presence anymore. And the conversations like we talked about have changed to cleaning disinfection. If, you know, regarding competitive response, If you look across the entire industry of endodontics, there are no new technologies that have been introduced into this field for the last one or two decades. There are obviously companies out there that are trying to take or re-spin existing technologies to now, because of Sunendo's success, try to go directly against us. But we're still, like we talked about in RS1 and that we've talked about in other areas, we're very confident that we have a superior technology in terms of enabling good cleaning and disinfections in the teeth and enabling good outcomes in endodontics. So we don't see anything on the horizon that can really compete head-to-head with us from an outcome perspective and provide something, obviously, that patients want for treating their root canal procedures. So with regards to the partnering side, you know, I think the Obviously, that's something that we'll continuously be monitoring, but we think the big value creation opportunity here in the business area is just to continue to build on the General Wave technology that we have, continue to build around the General Wave platform, and to continue to drive efficiencies in these procedures, and then obviously continue to convert the market to General Wave. We're doing less than 2%. of procedures across root canal therapy in the United States and Canada today. So obviously we see a very large opportunity ahead and we're very bullish on our ability to continue to take share and grow the business within this market.
spk04: Okay, great. Thank you so much.
spk03: Thanks, Erin.
spk05: Thank you. As that was our final question, I'd like to hand it back to Bjorn for some closing remarks.
spk03: Well, thank you, Operator. Let me just close out by saying that we appreciate everyone spending time with us today. Mike and I look forward to meeting many of you as we go forward, both at future investor conferences and also for individual meetings. Have a great day.
spk05: Thank you all for joining. That does conclude today's call. Please have a lovely day. You may now disconnect your line.
Disclaimer