Why Dental Packaging Design Matters

Packaging materials often go unnoticed, but they’re an essential part of a product’s lifecycle. The right dental packaging design keeps items safely sealed and hygienic, attractive, and ready to ship. This guide explores the options for dental packaging types, materials, and costs.

The Layers of Dental Packaging Design

Most dental products have multiple layers of packaging:

• Primary dental packaging: This layer offers direct protection for products, such as single-use blister cups, blister packs for medication, gel tubes, and plastic trays.
• Secondary dental packaging: The secondary layer can hold multiple individual products or make items more presentable to consumers. Examples include branded paperboard boxes for store shelves and cardboard boxes for bulk storage and shipping.
• Tertiary packaging: Dental product manufacturers use tertiary packaging for logistics and transportation. Pallets and shrink wrap keep boxed products safe, secure, and easy to move. 

The shape and size of packaging can vary considerably. For example, oral hygiene products often use thermoformed blister packaging with a paperboard backing designed to provide a snug fit, maintain an airtight seal, showcase the item on hanging displays, and deliver use instructions at the same time.

Common Applications for Dental Packaging

The type of dental packaging your company needs depends on what kind of products you sell.

Products for Dental Professionals

In order to maximize patient safety, maintain a hygienic environment, and increase efficiency, modern dental practices often provide single-use consumables during checkups:

• Cups with mouthwash or rinsing solution
• Flow-through tubes
• Sachets
• Applicators
• Oral x-ray sensors
• Polishing strips

Manufacturers that sell to dental clinics or dental suppliers need high-quality packaging that focuses on strength, sterilization, regulatory compliance, and protection. Branding is important, but secondary layers are usually simple to keep costs down.   

Retail Products

Dental packaging designs for retail focus strongly on aesthetics. Plastic cases are selected for transparency as much as durability.

Clear thermoplastic molding is popular for dental products, such as toothbrushes and floss. Tubes often use plastic laminate, with sandwiched layers of medical-grade plastic, aluminum, and flexible polymers. All dental packaging must adhere to the highest standards for consumer safety.

Dental Clinic Supplies

Manufacturers often need a variety of dental packaging designs and materials to properly safeguard products. Dental clinics go through a high volume of consumables:

• Restorative products: Bonding agents, etching liquids, dental cements, and composite resins
• Surgical materials: Scalpel blades, dental sutures, bone graft membranes, hemostats, and coagulant gauze
• Endodontics: Irrigation needles, gutta-percha tips or paper points, rotary files, and root canal sealing materials
• Infection control products: Surface disinfectants, suction tips, saliva ejectors, and surgical gloves
• Impression products: Silicone, polysulfide, and alginate materials
• Essentials: Mixing trays, cups, disposable syringes, polishing brushes, cotton rolls, and gauze

Some liquids require glass bottles. Other products work best with disposable foil and plastic blisters. Metalized pouches are also growing in popularity for primary and secondary dental packaging.

Specialized Dental Uses

Dental clinics use packaging for daily operations, including organization. Sterilization pouches are necessary for cleaning dental tools and keeping them safely sealed until use. These pouches use medical-grade materials such as polypropylene paper or thermosealing plastics.

Orthodontic boxes and trays are also necessary for dental clinics. The durable plastic containers come in different sizes to hold crowns, bridges, aligners/braces, dentures, and other orthodontics. Shipping prosthodontics to patients requires good impact resistance, strength, and cushioning.

Resealable trays allow clinics to send prosthodontic molds to third-party crafting labs. This process requires excellent protection, and selecting a high-quality container is important to prevent damage during shipping.

Premium Dental Devices

Device manufacturers need packaging that communicates the premium nature of their products while also providing maximum cushioning and support. Custom packaging is often used with rigid setup boxes, inserts, thermoplastic layers, and cutouts, along with special opening or sliding mechanics.

Popular Types of Dental Packaging

The consumer and B2B dental industries are broad, and so are the types of packaging designs available. Some of the most common types include:

• Plastic trays: Standard sealable trays can be used for surgical instruments,  consumables, burs, scalpel blades, and accessories, maintaining cleanliness and avoiding patient cross-contamination risks
• Thermoplastic trays: Molded thermoplastic trays offer better support and stability for high-value dental products and tools, such as handhelds and electronic oral devices.
• Insert trays: Often customized, plastic tray inserts slide perfectly into boxes, keeping products snug and secure whether horizontal or vertical. Inserts are common with multi-product kits and glass vials or bottles.
• Blister packs: Blister packs combine a plastic tray with a paperboard, plastic, or metallic backing. Different designs accommodate medication, individual products, multiple units, and even high-value items.
• Clamshell packaging: Similar to blister packs, clamshell packages fuse two plastic trays, providing space for larger products and offering greater tamper resistance and security.

Primary packaging choices depend on the type of dental product. Gels and pastes often use tubes or specialty applicators. Many dental product suppliers use Tyvek for medical-grade packaging.

Important Factors for Dental Packaging Design

When selecting dental packaging for your products, you need to consider your target audience, the package’s main purposes, the physical properties needed, and the conditions the items will face. For example, some types of plastics aren’t compatible with the high heat necessary for autoclave sterilization.

Regulations for Dental Packaging Design

Many kinds of dental packaging must adhere to ISO 11607 Packaging for Terminally Sterilized Medical Devices standards. FDA regulations also apply in the U.S., including the Quality Management System Regulation Final Rule.

Custom Dental Packaging

Another important decision is choosing between standard and custom packaging. The price difference isn’t as much as you may think, but it is there.

Many types of plastic are compatible with thermoforming, including high-impact polystyrene, polycarbonate, and medical-grade PVC. More rigid plastics like PETG and ABS work well for sterilization processes.

Cost-Effective and High-Quality Dental Packaging Design Services

Dental products need high-quality packaging for safety, security, efficiency, and marketing purposes. Whether your organization manufactures high-volume consumer-oriented goods or precision devices for dental clinics, selecting the right container is vital.

At Ready-Made Plastic Trays, we specialize in providing cost-effective and durable trays in countless standard configurations. We also provide custom dental packaging design services with high-performance thermoplastics. Request a Custom Tray today.