For the quarter ended June 30 Dentsply International reported net sales of $553.2 million, compared to $594.8 million in the second quarter of 2008. Net income for the quarter was $70.20 million, down from $78.65 million in the same quarter a year ago. The results for the latest quarter include $2.2 million of restructuring and other costs, $0.5 million of impact of acquisition-related activities, and $0.2 million of net charge for income tax-related adjustments.

Despite this fall, the chairman and CEO, Bret Wise said: “We are pleased to have once again delivered constant currency sales growth, excluding precious metals content. Despite a difficult economic environment, our businesses continue to execute well, and our earnings and cash flow are solid. This affirms the resilience of the global dental market and the strength of our business model.”

For Colgate it was a different picture with net income for the period of $561.6 million, compared to $493.8 million for the same quarter a year ago. Operating profit was $887.1 million for the quarter, compared to $788.4 million in the same quarter of 2008. However, worldwide sales declined 5.5% during the second quarter to $3.7 billion, and unit volume declined 1.5%, the company reported.

"Given continued worldwide economic difficulties, we are very pleased that profitability was strong with gross profit margin, operating profit margin, and net income as a percent to sales all increasing to record levels," said Ian Cook, chairman, president, and CEO of Colgate, in a press release.

Colgate’s global toothpaste leadership strengthened to 44.8% during the quarter with market share gains in many countries, including the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, China, India, and Russia, Cook added. The company also strengthened its global leadership in manual toothbrushes, with its global market share in that category reaching a record 31.1% year to date, up 0.6 share points versus a year ago.

In the U.S., new product launches are contributing to market share gains across categories, the company noted. Market share gains year to date were seen in toothpaste, manual toothbrushes, power toothbrushes, liquid hand soap, bodywashes, hand dish liquid, and liquid cleaners.