£75k grant awarded by Align Technology.
The maker of Invisalign braces Align Technology has announced the award of a $75,000 (£49,100) grant to researchers in the US as part of its Clear Aligner Research Award Programme. 
The recipients of the funding are Dr Maria Orellana, assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry, and Dr Robyn Silberstein, clinical associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry.
“We were pleased with the level of academic interest in clear aligner therapy research and we will continue to sponsor the programme for 2011,” said Align’s vice-president of clinical technology Dr Eric Kuo.
Meanwhile, the company also recently announced that it is to remove its prerequisite that dentists must demonstrate they are able to offer its products to at least ten patients over the course of a year in order to qualify for the use of Invisalign braces.
Dentists will now be able to offer this service however many patients they treat each year.