"Beyond Clarity", How Vatech's R&D Center Approaches Innovation
Vatech, the world's No. 1 dental CT company, owes its growth to innovation. At its foundation was research into sharper images and low-dose X-ray care.
But Vatech's R&D Center didn't stop there. The team noticed that even as imaging technology advances, its benefits don't reach patients who struggle to be imaged in the first place. Raising performance was no longer enough. The next leap, they realized, meant asking who this technology actually reaches.
A New Challenge, Found Outside the Lab
"We concluded that research moving in the same direction would make it hard to stand out over the long term."
That is how Jongha Lee, head of Vatech's R&D Center, describes the starting point of its accessibility research. As competition over image quality intensified, the center came to share a belief: technology should also solve the discomforts that customers take for granted, or never think to mention.
Starting in October 2024, researchers visited senior care institutions, dental clinics specializing in patients with disabilities, and clinical sites in Japan. What they saw made them question their familiar standards. Patients with developmental disabilities needed several visits and a period of adjustment before they could even be imaged. One clinic had dug into its floor to embed the equipment, just to match the imaging height for a child in a wheelchair.
"In front of the patients who need help the most, we realized that what we had might not be enough."
Changing the Question, Widening the Research
The center's question shifted from "How sharp an image can we capture?" to "Can this patient get through the scan?"
When manufacturers calculate scan time, they usually count only image acquisition. Patients, meanwhile, endure the whole process: getting into position, following instructions, and stepping out of the device. Noticing this gap, Vatech made the entire imaging process, including preparation and adjustment, the subject of its research.
Hardware, firmware, and imaging engineers worked as one team to redesign the operating logic. The result is a technology that cuts a patient's time in the device by up to a minute or more, while maintaining image quality and diagnostic accuracy. It was delivered to the Green X series through a remote update. It marks a shift toward measuring innovation not only by the image, but by the patient's experience.
Turning Voices from the Field Back into Technology
Vatech's Boundless Campaign is how this research continues. It links technology development, collaboration with clinics, and social responsibility, with the goal of an environment where no one is left out of dental care.
The partnership with the Smile Foundation, established in October 2025, is part of this effort. Vatech donates the Green X 21 to dental clinics specializing in patients with disabilities, and the foundation shares real imaging cases and needed improvements with R&D. Field challenges become product improvements, which are then verified back in the field. Research on fixation devices, positioning aids, guidance methods, and noise reduction is also under way.
Where Our Next Leap Begins
"If technology can lower that threshold even a little, I believe that's what a research center is for."
Vatech's R&D Center is clear about how it approaches innovation: never settle for past success, find the questions in the field, and bring different expertise together to find answers.
It is about connecting the technology built in pursuit of clarity to the care of more people. Vatech's next leap will start here, in innovation that goes beyond familiar standards.
