Here are 50 facts about the dental industry, including statistics on salary, workforce and DSO consolidation:
1. Heartland Dental is the largest DSO in the U.S. It plans to add more than 130 practices to its network this year through de novo offices and affiliations.
2. The top nine largest DSOs in the U.S. support more than 6,700 dental offices combined.
3. The top five largest DSOs in the U.S. support more than 10,000 dentists combined.
4. A recent report from the Association of DSOs found that the majority of dentists now work in a group practice, with only 36% of dentists working at a solo practice. Thirteen percent of dentists are now affiliated with a DSO.
5. Only 72.5% of dentists in private practice are owners in 2023, down from 84.7% in 2005, according to a November report from the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute.
6. Dentists who have been out of dental school for 10 years or fewer are more likely to be affiliated with a DSO, according to data from the ADA's Health Policy Institute.
7. Increasing costs in dentistry can hurt accessibility as dental practices and DSOs find it difficult to hire more staff, according to Saam Zarrabi, DDS.
8. Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. projects that the U.S. will be short more than 36,000 dental professionals by 2031.
9. There is already a shortage of more than 10,000 dentists in the country, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.
10. Dentistry could lead the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare as the industry continues to innovate with the technology, according to VideaHealth Founder and CEO Florian Hillen.
11. Oral surgery is becoming a popular field of interest for private equity groups, DSOs and other dental companies as the opportunities for growth are ascertained.
12. Thirty-two states also had a DSO affiliation rate of 10% or more as of 2022 data.
13. Orthodontists have the highest rate of DSO affiliation when compared to dentists in seven other dental specialties.
14. Some DSOs have begun shifting expansion strategies and focusing on other areas of growth to wait out economic challenges currently affecting the industry, including inflated supply costs and higher costs of capital.
15. Richard Hall, CEO of Irving, Texas-based U.S. Oral Surgery Management called macroeconomic conditions one of the biggest challenges facing DSOs, predicting these conditions to continue until the second half of 2024. Until then, he added that DSOs could begin merging out of necessity.
16. Dental offices in the U.S. generated approximately $478 billion in annual economic impact in 2022, according to recent ADA data.
17. About 16.9 million people have been disenrolled from Medicaid as of Feb. 13.
18. Fourteen states now authorize dental therapists to treat patients.
19. About 28 percent of dental assistants and 47% of dental hygienists are satisfied with their compensation.
20. There were 202,536 general practitioner dentists in the U.S. in 2022, an increase of 39,127 dentists since 2001.
21. There were 6,745 graduates from U.S. dental schools in 2022, a slight increase over the number of 2021 graduates.
22. Nearly 300 million Americans were enrolled in dental coverage in 2022.
23. The average annual salary for dental practice managers increased by 13.02% in 2023 to $76,279.
24. Ninety percent of Americans who have visited a dental professional in the last year reported being satisfied with their insurance.
25. The global endodontics and orthodontics market is estimated at $5.66 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $9.46 billion in the next 10 years.
26. Thirty-four percent of dental hygienists plan to retire within six years.
27. Forty percent of adults living in rural areas have not visited a dentist in the past year.
28. Hourly pay for dentists is projected to drop nearly $14 by 2033 when adjusted for inflation.
29. National dental expenditures were $165 billion in 2022, a decrease of 6.3% compared to 2021.
30. Adults in the U.S. miss more than 243 million work and school hours each year because of oral health problems.
31. Illinois is the state with the best dental health.
32. Arkansas is the state with the worst dental health.
33. The cost to open a new dental practice can range between $120,000 and $480,000, according to a recent report from the Associations of DSOs.
34. Hospitals and health systems have begun investing more in dentistry as organization leaders look to provide holistic patient care.
35. About 33% of dentist owners plan to retire within six years.
36. The American Dental Association voiced its opposition against direct-to-consumer dentistry following SmileDirectClub's bankruptcy.
37. Nearly one-third of patients will delay getting dental treatment when experiencing pain or will ignore the pain altogether despite knowing the risks of oral health diseases, according to a study by VideaHealth.
38. Nearly four-fifths of oral health providers reported experiencing burnout, according to a report by the Oral Health Workforce Research Center at the University at Albany's Center for Health Workforce Studies.
39. Thirty-seven percent of adults who have experienced discrimination have not undergone a routine dental visit in the last 12 months, according to September data from the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health.
40. There are currently 72 dental schools in the U.S.
41. Thirty-seven percent of dentists have seen up to a 10 percent increase in staff wages, according to data from the American Dental Association.
42. Thirty percent of dentists use teledentistry at their practice.
43. More than 40 percent of dental practice owners reported in September that insurance reimbursement from all companies has stayed the same over the past 12 months.
44. Align Technology CEO Joseph Hogan is among the 20 highest paid healthcare CEOs in the U.S.
45. Dental benefits, paid vacation and paid holidays are the benefits dental practice owners are offering to their employees the most.
46. Four DSOs were recently ranked among the biggest PE-backed buyers in healthcare.
47. Eleven dental companies were ranked among the fastest-growing companies on the Inc. Regionals 2024 list.
48. Forty-nine dental schools received more than $276 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2023.
49. General dentists in the U.S. earn an average of $172,290 each year.
50. There are currently 6,820 dental professional shortage areas in the U.S.