Misinformation about dental care and treatments has increased in the industry, leading to negative repercussions for patients and providers, according to one DSO exec.
Ash ElDifrawi, chief commercial and brand officer at The Aspen Group, recently spoke with Becker's to discuss some of the trends he is following in the dental industry this year.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What trends are you following in the dental industry right now?
Ash ElDifrawi: We're seeing the trend in the growth of implants. That's clearly one area. I think digital dentistry is the other area. AI, both from a customer experience and [as] clinical tools, we're seeing that as a clear trend. Easy access and financing and affordability is the other piece that's becoming a reality as consumers have more options. In some areas, those things start to matter in terms of differentiators.
One thing I'm a little concerned about as a trend is, as things get a little competitive, there's a lot of misinformation out there, and I think there's a lot of confusion with consumers. For example, you see things out there like "teeth in a day," things like that, but then there are problems that flow from that. One of the things the industry has to be careful about and think through a bit is how to make sure there's transparency with consumers and there's access to good information because there are a lot of people out there just trying to win over consumers with claims and misinformation. It's a real concern and a trend we have to reverse.
Q: Why do you think claims like "teeth in a day" have become so popular?
AE: Consumer expectations have changed a lot [because] everything is faster. We've gone from two-day [shipping] to overnight, to same day, to within an hour-long window. You're almost disappointed if you don't see the overnight window to get something off of Amazon. Two or three years ago, you'd be happy if it was two or three days, which was phenomenal. DoorDash has become a verb now. So that's just one example of how fast things change. As that moves its way into here, and the fact that we can do things on social media without really a lot of quality control and regulation, people will start making claims like "teeth in a day," where we know that that's not really real. What does that mean in terms of quality? We're starting to see some of the repercussions of things like that. They're telling consumers what they want to hear and, unfortunately, that has implications to the rest of us and different brands, which are actually trying to say the right things and be honest, but you have to now go out there and compete.