Staffing is the top challenge dentists anticipate facing within the next six months, with 66.3 percent of dentists citing it as a concern, according to a recent poll from the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute.
The poll, consisting of responses from over 1,000 dentists, was taken as part of the ADA's monthly "Economic Outlook and Emerging Issues in Dentistry" report.
Other challenges include:
Inflation/overhead/rising costs: 40.2 percent
Insurance or Medicaid issues/low reimbursement: 39.1 percent
Performance of U.S. economy: 13.4 percent
Increasing/maintaining patient volume: 13 percent
Maintaining/increasing production and cash flow: 12.1 percent
Patient cancellations or no-shows/scheduling: 9.5 percent
Patient ability to pay for/accept treatment: 8.6 percent
Avoiding burnout of self and/or staff: 3.9 percent
COVID-19-related/other government regulations and protocols: 3.2 percent
More patients than manageable/high demand for care: 2.9 percent
Supply chain issues/shortages: 2.7 percent
Keeping staff and self happy: 2.7 percent
Staff wages/compensation/benefits: 2.6 percent
Practice transition/retirement: 2.5 percent
Competition with other dentists/corporate dentistry: 2.1 percent
Learning/implementing new technology/equipment: 1.3 percent
Business/practice management: 1.1 percent
More COVID-19 cases/new variants: 0.9 percent
Marketing/advertising: 0.7 percent
Administrative burden: 0.7 percent
Patients afraid to return: 0.3 percent