ACTEON.

A dealer interview with an Acteon speaker lays out the dates the group uses. Produits Dentaires Pierre Rolland began in 1946. Satelec began in 1970 and produced an ultrasonic generator for dentistry. The two Bordeaux-area companies merged in 1986 and left Sanofi in 1991 through an employee buyout. Sopro, in La Ciotat, was acquired in 2001. The Acteon name, gathering pharma, equipment, and imaging, is dated 2003. De Gotzen, an Italian imaging company, was acquired in 2006. A Dental Tribune interview dates the Pierre Rolland merger to 1985 rather than 1986, so the two published accounts differ by a year.

The same dealer interview says the head office is in the Bordeaux region and that four French plants split the work: two in the Bordeaux area for pharmaceuticals and equipment, a manual-instrument plant in Olliergues near Clermont-Ferrand, formerly Prodont Holliger, and an intraoral-imaging plant in La Ciotat near Marseille. Extraoral imaging, including CBCT, is described at a plant near Milan. Les Echos reported in November 2001 that Satelec bought Sopro, then a 27-person intraoral video company, to add cameras to ultrasonic scalers and consumables.

The Dental Tribune interview says the group kept the old company names under the Acteon umbrella because Satelec and Pierre Rolland were still better known than the group name in France, while newer markets used Acteon as the company and the older names as divisions. That is why a scaler may say Satelec, a camera may say Sopro, and the parent may say Acteon on the same invoice.

Acteon is not one device. An ultrasonic scaler, a phosphor plate, an intraoral camera, and a Pierre Rolland material are different regulated products from different plants. Buy the IFU that matches the brand on the label. Les Echos in 2001 said Satelec already exported most of its sales and had added lasers, chair-side X-ray equipment, and, through earlier acquisitions, sterilization autoclaves. Those categories may or may not still be in the current Acteon catalog. Confirm the live SKU rather than assuming a 2001 product list is what ships from Merignac today.

Acteon suits a practice buying a Satelec scaler, a Sopro camera or phosphor system, or a De Gotzen imaging unit and willing to track which division built it. Ultrasonic scalers are compared on the ultrasonic scaler guide.

Cameras and phosphor plates are on the intraoral camera guide and the phosphor plate guide. Hand scalers, if the purchase is a manual instrument from the Olliergues plant, are on the hand scaler guide.

Satelec, Sopro, Pierre Rolland, and De Gotzen stayed as product identities after the 2003 Acteon name. Service should follow the name on the device, not only the group logo.

Intraoral scanners are a different shelf from a Sopro camera. The intraoral scanner guide covers scanners. Confirm the Acteon quote is actually a scanner before you use that comparison.

The dealer interview places equipment and pharma in the Bordeaux area, instruments in Olliergues, intraoral imaging in La Ciotat, and extraoral imaging near Milan. Parts for a camera do not ship from the scaler plant by default.

The 1985 and 1986 merger dates disagree across interviews. The 2003 group name is the date both accounts use for Acteon itself.