When Corey Anderson, DDS, describes the economic pressures facing dentistry, he starts with a candid acknowledgment: the profession is facing more difficulty than it tends to say out loud
Dr. Anderson, owner of Affordable Dentures & Implants in Bridgeport, W.V., sees a profession caught between forces it can’t control and institutions that haven’t effectively advocated for solutions.
He recently connected with Becker’s to talk about the pressures that dentistry is facing, including stagnant reimbursements, cost-of-living pressure on patients, private equity exposure and new graduates entering a tight market.
Note: This response was lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: Given how much economic and policy uncertainty is out of dentists’ control right now, what is one risk, economic and/or policy, that you feel the industry isn’t paying enough attention to? How should dentists be navigating it?
Dr. Corey Anderson: Economic and policy uncertainty requiring additional attention is a large ask. Nationally, the cost of living is too high for people to prioritize healthcare or dental work for much other than basic dentistry, so people defer larger procedures until absolutely needed. Patients will also typically shop around aggressively for the lowest out-of-pocket expense. To the extent that elected officials can shape national and local political decisions to reduce cost of living, elections are coming up very soon.
Private equity business decisions financed previously on large debt with low interest rates came to an end, leaving PE players exposed to unexpected losses or refinancing with less favorable terms. To the extent that financial decision-makers without clinical experience can own and operate a complex dental network, dentists can either embrace finance background decision-makers for better decisions or continue with current trends of decision making by spreadsheet and AI.
New dentists are graduating at large numbers currently while associate positions are not as available due to market conditions. New dentists are also graduating with unprecedented student debt levels. Dentists can create new associate positions for these dentists or help to connect new dentists with potential openings. Saturation of dental providers in some areas cannot be entirely corrected with relocation to other areas as dental need and financial ability to pay for dental work do not overlap in sufficient areas to accommodate all new graduates.
Stagnant reimbursement rates from dental insurance companies leave most dentists positioned to either do more for less or to not accept insurance and do less for the same. Loss ratio legislation could address this national problem. Elected officials can legislate this. Barring a major national economic disaster resulting in deflation, dental materials and equipment are stuck at levels that require costs be passed through to patients, again challenging insurance reimbursement and economic conditions affecting patients. Dentists could consider aggressively searching for less expensive, nontraditional and smaller dental suppliers. However, most of these responses seem based on a wait-it-out mentality rather than planning for market growth during an expanding national economy.
Dentists are facing greater difficulties outside of our control than we like to state publicly. As a longstanding ADA and AGD member, organized dentistry has not effectively advocated for dentists or solutions to dental economic conditions of today. As such, organized dentistry has not lived up to the challenges faced at present by dentistry. Historically, advice was to join organized dentistry, but this might no longer be helpful. Time will tell.
