- Three-way business partnership between SHOFU, SUN MEDICAL and Mitsui Chemicals
According to the company’s website press release on April 26, 2023, SHOFU INC. (Tokyo: 7979; President & COO: TAKAMI Tetsuo), SUN MEDICAL CO., LTD. (Head Office: Moriyama, Shiga; President & CEO: NAKAJIMA Yoshiyuki) and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: HASHIMOTO Osamu) announced that Shofu Dental Brasil Comercio de Produtos Odontologicos Ltda. (Shofu Brasil; Head Office: Sao Paulo, Brazil; President: HARASHIMA Tomomi), a sales subsidiary of SHOFU, will launch Brazilian sales of SUN MEDICAL’s Super-Bond™ dental adhesive in June 2023.
Employing 4-methacryloxyethyl trimellitate anhydride (4-META) as a dispersion-aiding monomer and tributylborane (TBB) as a polymerization initiator, Super-Bond™ is an acrylic resin cement made for use as a dental adhesive. It is referred to in academic literature as a 4-META/MMA-TBB resin. SUN MEDICAL began producing and selling the product in 1982, and since sales first began in Japan, the material has become a favorite among dentists due to its excellent adhesive properties and ample track record of effectiveness. Super-Bond™ finds use in a wide range of applications, including stabilizing mobile teeth, forming direct resin-bonded bridges, and enabling the adhesion of brackets and ceramic prostheses. The material enjoys widespread use in clinical settings around the world, with exports already going out to the U.S., Europe, China and South Korea.
Super-Bond™ is made up of a polymerization initiator, a liquid and a polymer powder, and exhibits excellent adhesion to tooth material (enamel/dentin), dental alloys and ceramics alike. The product’s mechanism sees Catalyst V, which has TBB as its main component, react with water and oxygen to serve as a polymerization initiator. Super-Bond™ is especially notable for its adhesion to tooth material, which is difficult to keep completely dry: since hardening begins at the adhesive interface, the product is able to exhibit better adhesive strength and adhesive durability here than conventional resin cements.
Super-Bond™ recently received pharmaceutical approval in Brazil, where the dentistry market looks set for growth going forward. This then prompted the decision to begin sales in this market, helping those in the country to keep their natural teeth for longer. Starting with an exhibition at CIOCE 2023 – an international dentistry conference set to be held in Fortaleza over May 6–9, 2023 – efforts will be made to gradually introduce the product across the country via KOL marketing at seminars and other such venues.
Comment from President HARASHIMA Tomomi of Shofu Brasil, which will sell the material:
We are honored to announce the Brazilian launch of Super-Bond™, which has been held in high regard among dentists for some 40 years. Based on its excellent clinical results so far, we believe that sales of the product will aid dental treatment in Brazil, where minimally invasive surgery has been on the rise.
