Dental Chairs & Dental Equipment in Colombia

Registering and importing dental equipment in Colombia

Dental chairs and dental units are medical devices in Colombia and need a registro sanitario from INVIMA before they are sold. The rules come from Decreto 4725 de 2005: devices are classed I, IIa, IIb or III by risk; Class I and IIa devices receive their registration on a complete filing and are controlled afterwards, while IIb and III go through a prior technical evaluation of several months. Powered dental equipment is generally Class IIa, so a chair's registration is usually a matter of a complete dossier rather than a long review; the class of a specific model is confirmed on application. A registro is valid for ten years and names the importers allowed to bring the device in — the importer needs INVIMA's CCAA storage-and-conditioning certificate — and a foreign manufacturer can hold the registro through a local legal representative or let the importer hold it.

The manufacturer's part of the file is where a factory earns its keep: a Certificate of Free Sale (apostilled — both China and Colombia are in the Hague Convention — and translated into Spanish), ISO 13485 and CE certificates, the technical dossier and test reports, Spanish labelling with UDI identifiers, all naming the same model numbers that will later appear on your invoice. INVIMA changed the filing process in its Oficina Virtual from 1 July 2026 (a filing number is issued once the documents are uploaded and the fee is paid), and a draft decree that would replace Decreto 4725 and create a lighter notification route for low- and moderate-risk devices went to public consultation in 2026 but had not been issued by October 2026; your registration holder will know which regime applies when you file.

Customs. Colombia has no free-trade agreement with China, so chairs pay the general duty on the CIF value plus 19% IVA; your agente de aduana confirms the tariff line and rate before you fix a resale price. The importer's RUT must have import activity enabled with DIAN. We prepare the invoice, packing list and certificate of origin to match your declaration.

If your clinic is buying one chair, contact the factory to confirm current local coverage, suitable importers and installation and after-sales arrangements before ordering.

Power, air and water in a Colombian clinic

Colombia's mains supply is 110 V at 60 Hz with Type A and B (North American) sockets. Order the 110 V / 60 Hz version of the chair and the compressor, not the 220 V / 50 Hz version that ships to Europe and Africa — we configure the transformer and the compressor motor for 60 Hz at the factory, and the specification and plug type are confirmed on your proforma invoice.

Supply is generally reliable in the main cities, though the generators' association, Acolgen, warned in 2026 that a strong El Niño and delays to new power plants raise the risk of rationing in 2026–2027. Practical points:

• Put the chair's control unit on a voltage regulator or UPS. Brown-outs and the surge when power returns are the usual cause of control-board damage.
• Size any backup for the compressor. The chair draws little; the compressor decides whether a UPS or small generator copes. Ask us for its running and starting current.
• Oil-free compressors need no oil changes, and a dryer keeps handpiece air dry in humid cities such as Barranquilla and Cartagena.

Water: the dental unit runs on filtered water or a bottle-fed system; the autoclave on distilled water — a 4-litre distiller covers a single-chair practice.

Shipping from Foshan to Buenaventura or Cartagena

Our factory is in Foshan, an hour from the container ports of Guangzhou (Nansha) and Shenzhen. Cargo from Asia normally enters Colombia through Buenaventura on the Pacific: forwarders quote about 25–40 days port to port depending on the service, and COSCO's direct WSA5 service from Shanghai and other North China ports has called at Buenaventura weekly since February 2025. From Buenaventura it is four to six hours by road to Cali, twelve to eighteen to Medellín and fourteen to twenty to Bogotá. Cartagena on the Caribbean takes about 28–35 days and suits Barranquilla, the coast and, for some forwarders, Bogotá and Medellín; tell us which port your customs agent works from and we book accordingly.

A single chair or a small first order goes as LCL (shared container); a first order for resale is usually a 20 ft container. The packing data we send with every quotation lists how many chairs and equipment combinations fit in a 20 ft and a 40 ft container. Small items — handpieces, curing lights, cameras — can travel by air to Bogotá in about a week.

We quote FOB Guangzhou or Shenzhen for dealers with their own forwarder, or delivered to the Colombian port when you prefer one price that includes the sea freight. Payment is by T/T or L/C; lead time is confirmed on the proforma invoice and sample units ship first.

Buying as a clinic or as a dealer

Clinics. Yes, we sell single units directly — one chair for a new practice, a second chair for a growing clinic, or a replacement for an old unit. In Colombia, contact the factory to confirm current local coverage, suitable importers and installation and after-sales arrangements; if you prefer to import yourself, we support your technician by video during the first installation and supply the INVIMA documents to your registration holder. You can write to us in Spanish.

Dealers and depósitos dentales. Colombian dealers work with us under the distributor programme: factory-direct pricing tiered by quantity, the registration document pack with Spanish labelling, marketing files, remote technical training and a recommended spare-parts kit available for the first container, with contents and pricing confirmed on the proforma invoice. Territory exclusivity is discussed once a partner meets an annual commitment. Most partnerships begin with a trial of one to a few units, then a first container once the chairs are registered and installed.