New patients can wait an average of 24 days for a dental appointment and between 20 to 34 days for other medical appointments, according to a Sept. 14 Medscape report and data from the American Dental Association.
Medscape researchers estimated average wait times using data gathered from a survey of 1,034 physician offices across five medical specialties during a 10-week period between March and mid-May 2022.
The American Dental Association polled 1,128 dentists in its September "Economic Outlook and Emerging Issues in Dentistry" report to find average wait times for dental appointments.
Here are average wait times for new patients in 2022:
Dentistry: 24 days
OB-GYN: 31.4 days
Cardiology: 26.6 days
Dermatology: 34.5 days
Orthopedics: 16.9 days
Family medicine: 20.6 days