National dental expenditures dropped 1.8 percent from 2019 to 2020, according to data cited by the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute.
Data from federal agencies found a dental spending decrease from $145 billion in 2019 to $142.4 billion in 2020. Per capita, spending decreased from $442 in 2019 to $430 in 2020, according to the HPI analysis of data from CMS, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau.
When stratified by source of financing, out-of-pocket spending decreased by 12.7 percent, the most significant decline. Private health insurance spending dropped by 4.9 percent, while government program spending declined 2.1 percent. In contrast, the "other" spending category increased by 481 percent because of government relief programs.
"These data show a pretty muted overall effect in 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic on dental spending, given dentistry had almost a two-month shutdown," said Marko Vujicic, PhD, chief economist and vice president for HPI. "The data also show, for the first time, how critical government relief programs, like the Paycheck Protection Program, were for dentists."
Pandemic-related government relief spending was $8.7 billion in 2020, according to the analysis. Without programs such as PPP and the Provider Relief Fund, HPI projects that 2020 national dental spending would have been $133.7 billion, a 7.8 percent decrease from 2019.