The time-value of money means the adjustment goes the other way. $20k is absolutely insane. That’s three times the cost of a full orthodontic treatment. They’ll get a handful of customers, if that.

$2k is more likely as a price point for mass adoption.

The average American probably spends about 20k in their lifetime, that's probably where they got their pricing from. They get a check-up a year and a handful of fillings with some prosthetics if they live long enough. Which totals to around 20k.

The average American also cannot afford 20k in one shot they can't even afford 2k.

If this is such a revolutionary technology and it is cheap to mass produce, it should be like water fluoridation and similar state funded measures that increase overall population health. I am not arguing that $20k is more than regular dental work's cost over a lifetime, in the US at least, but that it's because dental work is so expensive is why oral health is so bad worldwide,Lifestyle, sugar consumtion and the like notwithstanding.

thats not the way this works. Paying $20k over a lifetime vs an up front $20k payment means the up front $20k payment also includes the opportunity cost of the interest made - your up front payment of $20k is much more valuable than $20k over 60 or 70 years. That same $20k might be a large part of a downpayment on a mortgage and you'd get back many more times the value than if you spent it on your teeth all at once.