The dental industry needs more support in several key areas, according to three dentists.
These dentists recently spoke with Becker's about what is lacking in the industry and how these needs are affecting patient care, staffing and practice management.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What does dentistry need more of?
Avinash Bidra, BDS. Program Director, Maxillofacial Prosthodontist and Clinical Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine (Farmington): Dentistry is currently abundant with dental materials but needs more non-dental material resources, starting with good dental faculty to cater to the huge shortage of faculty across the country’s dental schools. Without good educators, there cannot be a good future generation of dentists. Dentistry also needs good dental technicians, dental assistants and dental hygienists. I don’t believe any artificial intelligence now or in the future can solve human resource problems in dentistry in a quality manner. Our patients and students will always be human and never digital.
Bob Ditomassi, DDS (Springfield, Mass.): Right now dentistry has a shortage of man/womanpower. We need more auxiliaries. There used to be a lot of technical community colleges that provided a good education and a degree in dental assisting and dental hygiene. There are fewer programs now and that has contributed to shortages of qualified personnel.
Demias Pegues. CEO of My Orthodontist North Carolina (Chapel Hill): As both the general and specialty dental industries continue to consolidate, more and more third-party partners offering business solutions are pouring into our industry. Seemingly every week, new companies emerge with solutions ranging from advanced AI systems to opportunities to outsource manual processes at a lower cost. Although exciting, the influx of new vendor partners is creating another problem for dentists and owners: how to determine which solution is best for your practice or group. Therefore, I believe that dentistry needs more support discerning which products will work best for each practice. I encourage owners to seek advice from industry professionals, attend conferences, consult online publications/podcasts and speak to product users to, first, learn more about what solutions are out there and to, second, get a strong feel for how a product would work. Spending money upfront on due diligence will aid in finding the right product for your specific needs, so the investment will be worth it. Also, for group practices, pilot new solutions in one or two practices first, work out the kinks, and then deploy more broadly. Moving slowly to move quickly ultimately saves time overall.