The majority of dentists see workforce challenges, insurance reimbursements and increasing expenses as the biggest challenges facing their practices, according to a report from the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute.
The ADA recently released its "Economic Outlook and Emerging Issues in Dentistry" report for the second quarter of 2024.
The ADA received 798 responses to a question about what dentists saw as the three biggest challenges facing dental practices in the next six months.
Here are the results of the survey:
Workforce issues: 63.2%
Insurance reimbursement, delayed/denied payment: 49.2%
Increasing overhead/expenses: 36.1%
Increasing cost of staff salary/benefits: 14.2%
Inflation/economy: 13.7%
Keeping schedule full: 13.7%
Sustaining/increasing patient volume: 12.7%
Patients affording/accepting treatment plans: 9.3%
Meeting high demand for care/limited capacity: 7.9%
Staff well-being/morale/burnout: 6.8%
Revenue /cash flow/funding to operate: 5.5%
Expanding/selling/transition to retirement: 5.4%
Keeping up with technology/clinical research: 5.3%
Competition with other dentists/large groups/DSO: 3.4%
Government oversight/rules and regulations: 3.3%
Dropping insurance plans/functioning out-of-network: 2.9%
Increasing lab costs/difficulty accessing labs: 1.5%
Business/team management: 1.5%
Political concerns: 1.3%
Miscellaneous: 6.3%