Being the owner of a practice, DSO affiliation and the size of the dental practice all have an impact on busyness levels for dentists, according to a survey conducted by the American Dental Association.
The ADA recently released its "Economic Outlook and Emerging Issues in Dentistry" report for the second quarter of 2024, which polled 853 dentists.
More than 20% of all non-owners were too busy to treat all individuals who were requesting appointments, compared to 15.5% of all owner dentists.
Over one-fifth of solo dentists said that they were not busy enough and could have treated more patients, while 20% of dentists working in practices with two to nine dentists felt they could have taken on more patients.
Here is the breakdown of how ownership status, DSO affiliation and practice size impact the busyness of dentists in the second quarter:
Too busy to treat all people requesting appointments
Owner dentists: 15.5%
Non-owner dentists: 21.7%
DSO affiliated dentists: 19.6%
Non-DSO affiliated dentists: 15.8%
Solo dentists: 14.3%
Dentists in practices with two to nine dentists: 18.5%
Provided care to all who requested appointments but was overworked
Owner dentists: 26%
Non-owner dentists: 13.3%
DSO affiliated dentists: 28.6%
Non-DSO affiliated dentists: 24.5%
Solo dentists: 23.1%
Dentists in practices with two to nine dentists: 27.7%
Provided care to all who requested appointments but was not overworked
Owner dentists: 34.1%
Non-owner dentists: 43.4%
DSO affiliated dentists: 33.9%
Non-DSO affiliated dentists: 35.1%
Solo dentists: 35.5%
Dentists in practices with two to nine dentists: 33.5%
Not busy enough, could have treated more patients
Owner dentists: 21.7%
Non-owner dentists: 21.7%
DSO affiliated dentists: 17.9%
Non-DSO affiliated dentists: 24.6%
Solo dentists: 27.1%
Dentists in practices with two to nine dentists: 20.3%