Swiss Smile is a chain of

dental Dental may refer to: * Dental consonant, in phonetics * Dental Records, an independent UK record label * Dentistry, oral medicine * Teeth See also * * Dental care (disambiguation) * Dentist (disambiguation) A dentist is a practitioner of denti ...

clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care nee ...

s from Switzerland. Founded by dentists and entrepreneurs

Golnar and Haleh Abivardi Golnar Abivardi and Haleh Abivardi, also known as Abivardi Sisters, are Swiss dentists and entrepreneurs, known for their chain of dental clinics called Swiss Smile. Early life and education Their father was a natural scientist at ETH Zurich ...

, the company runs branches in various locations besides offering luxury products for

oral hygiene Oral hygiene is the practice of keeping one's mouth clean and free of disease and other problems (e.g. bad breath) by regular brushing of the teeth (dental hygiene) and cleaning between the teeth. It is important that oral hygiene be carried out ...

History

Having grown up in

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

and

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS) ...

, and after finishing school and their

dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions ...

studies in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich () i ...

, Haleh and Golnar Abivardi, started working as employed dentists in Zürich. In 2002 they founded Swiss Smile and its first clinic in the Zürich ShopVille

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

in 2003. Inspired by the long opening hours of the

mall Mall commonly refers to a: * Shopping mall * Strip mall * Pedestrian street * Esplanade Mall or MALL may also refer to: Places Shopping complexes * The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria * The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India ...

, they wanted to offer the full service dentistry package of their clinic 365 days a year featuring long opening hours. In 2007 Swiss Smile started expanding its business in Switzerland and internationally, opening branches in e.g.

St. Moritz St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

with the latter being closed in 2010. The same year, the chain launched its product line offering luxury products for

, including

toothpaste Toothpaste is a paste or gel dentifrice used with a toothbrush to clean and maintain the aesthetics and health of teeth. Toothpaste is used to promote oral hygiene: it is an abrasive that aids in removing dental plaque and food from the teeth ...

and -

brushes A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped durin ...

and

dental floss Dental floss is a cord of thin filaments used in interdental cleaning to remove food and dental plaque from between teeth or places a toothbrush has difficulty reaching or is unable to reach. Its regular use as part of oral cleaning is designe ...

. The Abivardi sisters won the

Veuve Clicquot Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin () is a Champagne house founded in 1772 and based in Reims. It is one of the largest Champagne houses. Madame Clicquot is credited with major breakthroughs, creating the first known vintage champagne in 1810, and i ...

Business Woman of the Year award for Switzerland in 2007. As part of the ''Dentacare'' project in Zürich, Swiss Smile is collaborating with

Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber ''Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber'' (SWS) is a Swiss charitable foundation and relief organisation based the municipality of Zürich. Initiated in 1963 by Ernst Sieber, a pastor associated with the Reformierte Kirche des Kantons Zürich, the relief o ...

offering free dental services for people in need who cannot afford treatment on their own. In 2013 the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used b ...

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a typ ...

group

EQT AB EQT AB is a Swedish global investment organization founded in 1994. Its funds invest in private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restruc ...

acquired a

minority interest In accounting, minority interest (or non-controlling interest) is the portion of a subsidiary corporation's stock that is not owned by the parent corporation. The magnitude of the minority interest in the subsidiary company is generally less than ...

in Swiss Smile. A few years later, in 2017, the

Jacobs Holding Jacobs Holding AG is an investment firm based in Zürich founded in 1994 by Klaus Johann Jacobs which developed from Jacobs Suchard AG. Following the sale of 10.1% of Adecco The Adecco Group, is a Swiss-French company based in Zurich, Swit ...

bought the

controlling interest A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the majo ...

from EQT AB and the Abivardi sisters for 50 Million Swiss francs; the Abivardi sisters remained invested and actively engaged in Swiss Smile. As of March 2019 the chain runs its clinics in 20 locations in Switzerland, including eight in

and its surrounding area, among other cities such as Aarau, Bern,

and

Zug Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo rm, Zug New Latin: ''Tugium'')named in the 16th century is the largest town and capital of the Swiss canton of Zug in Switzerland. Its name originates from the fishing vocabulary ...

. Internationally, Swiss Smile runs one center in

(

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

). Formerly Swiss Smile used to run branches in other European cities like

from 2007 to 2010, but they partly closed them down, focussing mostly on Switzerland with the exception of keeping their clinic in Moscow.

Products

The

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internati ...

company runs — apart from their

s — a sortiment of

products. It offers

and

. The products are settled in the upper price class, offering luxurious designs and ingredients such as

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

- or

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, fro ...

s in their toothpastes. Mostly aimed at the

US market The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em Health care companies of Switzerland Oral hygiene Dental companies Swiss brands Swiss companies established in 2002