This month, dental professionals spoke with Becker’s about DSO growth, workforce shortages, student debt and more.
Here is what six dental professionals told us in July:
What will fuel the next wave of DSO growth
Jessica Lo. Vice President of Operations of Urgent Dental Center (Indianapolis): I can say from where I sit, we are more so looking into acquisitions. The de novo focus is very cash focused on the front end. While we’re PE backed, we do want to get as much for our cash as we can, and it is just a little bit more of a risk for us rather than bringing someone into our model and adjusting them to our method of treating patients the same day.
Dentists’ biggest staffing headaches
Murat Ayik, DDS. Woodhill Endodontics (Dallas): The talent shortage extends well beyond specialists. Recruiting oral surgeons, endodontists and periodontists remains highly competitive, but we’re also seeing growing demand for exceptional practice leaders. Today’s leaders must blend operational excellence with technology adoption, HR expertise, financial management and an unwavering focus on the patient experience. As healthcare becomes more complex, finding individuals with that broad skill set is one of the industry’s biggest recruiting and retention challenges.
Why solo dentistry could soon be on the way out
Haim Haviv. Founder and CEO of Hudson Dental (New York City): The consolidation is continuing. I don’t see it going anywhere. You will have, and that’s always going to be the case in my mind, that section of dentists in the industry who want to be the entrepreneur, they want to run their own shop, and that’s perfectly fine. There’s definitely room for them. However, it’s getting harder and harder for them … 20 years ago, there was no speed to lead. You could get a phone call, people would leave a voicemail, and you’d get back to them the next day. They were still available to come to your office. This is not the case anymore … If you return a phone call in 30 minutes, that’s not enough. In half the cases, it’s not enough. The patient already found a new office to go to. That trend of speed to lead, the marketing costs, which are extremely important in the consolidation, just make it very hard, not to mention technology, and like my colleagues here said about reimbursements, you have to essentially have a full-time person to cover these things. It’s harder and harder for these solo entrepreneurs. It is possible. You’ll always have that segment of dentistry, but I do see consolidation not going anywhere.
The dental workforce pipeline isn’t broken — it’s leaking: What’s really driving the crisis
Sepand Hokmabadi, DDS. CEO and Founder of Total Health Dental Care (Oakland, Calif.): The workforce answer isn’t deciding between technology and people — it’s building a system where each does what it does best. Our example: rather than outsourcing patient calls to a third-party call center, we built a Native AI orchestration layer in-house that handles every inbound call across our offices, resolving roughly half of patient contacts without any human need — freeing our teams to focus where a person actually matters. And after exploring less-to-no front desks at some of our locations, we found the opposite to be true where it counts most — dedicated, in-person front desk staff has driven production increases of 40% to 47% where we’ve implemented it. That combination of Native AI absorbing volume and people driving relationships is how we see the real threat to the workforce pipeline: practices forcing a choice between the two instead of building both.
How $300K in student debt can change dental career paths
Robert Trager, DDS. Owner of Dentists for Airport Employees (New York City): The best scenario may be for a prospective student to go to school and become a hygienist and earn from $80,000 to over $100,000 and use that money for tuition. Another solution would be for the DSOs, who are constantly growing and consolidating, to offer scholarships to prospective students after vetting them as serious candidates. Also, for some DSOs to provide these students with loans on the same vetting. A legal contract will be drawn up so that these prospective students will have to work for the DSOs that have provided them with these funds upon graduation to help pay off their debt or loan and scholarship funds. Now the DSOs will have no problem with future employment based on their financial transactions. This may be a win-win solution for all parties involved.
The dividing line between private practices and DSOs
Joshua Sun, DMD. Albuquerque (N.M.) Periodontal & Implant Specialists: I worked for a DSO for five years. They accepted all PPO insurances, but some insurance reimbursement rates were extremely low, and [I] had to work harder. The company cared more about production than the quality of services. Doctors had to follow the rules of the front desk persons, [and there was] no team culture.
I have been in private practice for the last seven years. Fee-for-service, [I do not] have to work harder for that production, 100% autonomy, front desk persons help doctors, and it is a team.
At the Becker's 5th Annual Future of Dentistry Roundtable, taking place September 14-15 in Chicago, dental leaders and executives will gain insights into emerging technologies, practice growth strategies and the evolving landscape of dental care delivery, with a focus on innovation, patient experience and operational excellence. Apply for complimentary registration now.