While there are several things to be optimistic about in the dental industry, many challenges remain.
Here are three pieces of good news and bad news for the dental industry:
Good news:
Medical-dental integration: Dental companies are more focused on integrating medical and dental care for patients, resulting in increased collaboration between the two industries. This is a key focus for Irvine, Calif.-based DSO Pacific Dental Services, which became the first DSO to integrate Epic's EHR into all its dental practices last year. San Francisco-based UCSF Health and UCSF Dentistry also integrated patients' oral health and medical records into Epic's electronic health record system. Several other companies and organizations made moves last year to integrate medical and dental care, including opening integrated practices and launching new services.
Payer reform: Several pieces of legislation have been introduced or passed to increase coverage and hold dental insurers accountable. Several states began implementing or considering medical loss ratios, which require dental insurers to spend a specified percentage of premium dollars on dental services or refund the difference to patients. Illinois recently passed two payer reform bills, one that requires insurers to notify dentists that a network they are a part of is being leased out and a second bill that prevents dentists from incurring virtual credit card fees to obtain payment for services.
Technology innovations: Technology innovation in the dental industry has increased to enhance patient care and improve operations at practices. Several practices have added the Yomi robot for dental procedures, while the possibility of remote dentistry is being explored by a team of biomedical engineers at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. Dental companies are also launching innovations with clear aligners, artificial intelligence and teledentistry.
Bad news:
Stagnant reimbursements: Several states have increased Medicaid reimbursements, and CMS expanded its dental coverage as part of its 2023 Physician Fee Schedule. Despite this, dentists still see payer reimbursements as a major issue in the industry. An August 2022 poll by the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute found insurance reimbursement rates have remained stagnant for dentists despite rising operating costs. Nearly 60 percent of dentists indicated that rates remained stagnant, while 25 percent indicated their rates decreased and only 7 percent of dentists reported an increase in the last year.
Workforce shortages: Dental practices have continuously struggled to recruit dental hygienists, dental assistants, dentists and administrative staff. A recent ADA poll showed that practices found each role to be mostly "extremely" or "very" challenging to recruit. Dental hygienists are currently the most challenging role to recruit, with 79.8 percent of practices indicating that recruiting this role was "extremely challenging."
Student loan debt: Many dental professionals see student loan debt as a barrier to people entering the field and dentists seeking to open practices, leading to increased consolidation under DSOs and private equity groups that are more likely to have a financial edge. The cost of dental education at public and private universities has more than tripled in the last 50 years, while the average dental student debt has also increased. The Supreme Court recently struck down President Joe Biden's plan to forgive federal student loan debt for millions of Americans, meaning dental school students will be responsible for repaying their tuition costs.