The upcoming presidential election, focusing on mental health and the DSO consolidation market are three of the most important issues and trends that these nine dental leaders are facing heading into the second half of 2024.
The leaders featured in this article are all speaking at Becker's 2024 Fall Future of Dentistry Roundtable, Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.
If you work at a DSO or dental practice and would like to be considered as a speaker, please contact Randi Haseman at rhaseman@beckershealthcare.com.
Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What issues and trends are you following most closely for the 2nd half of the year?
Sibera Brannon, DDS. Dentist and Owner of Affordable Dentures and Implants (Sun City, Ariz.): I recently attended a leadership course where the attending doctors experienced major mindset breakthroughs. They were able to sort out the "whys" and "whats" in their minds, which helped them begin to figure out the foundation of the "hows" and "whens" in their lives. This was the most impactful non-clinical course I have attended in recent memory. I believe it was beneficial to all who listened and participated. The key point I wanted to share is that doctors are facing a multitude of challenges, including financial stress due to decreased revenues, professional burnout and a lack of direction in these uncertain times. Addressing mental health and maintaining a clear life vision and perspective are crucial during such periods. I believe this is an important issue at this time.
Haim Haviv. Founder and CEO of Hudson Dental (New York City): How the macro environment and the elections are going to impact the mergers and acquisitions market. We’re likely going to stay at the plateau stage for another 12-18 months, but the end of the year could be the beginning of the end for that. We're closely tracking inflation as a lead indicator to potential interest rates easing, which is a tailwind for any M&A activity. Also, we're looking to November and how the outcome of the elections might play out from a business environment standpoint. In sum, the dental industry is proving to be resilient throughout and we expect that to get even better once the market starts getting hot again.
Emily Letran, DDS. CEO of Sea Breeze Dental (Huntington Beach, Calif.): First, to me, it is very much "common sense" to use AI diagnostic tools such as Pearl, Overjet, Diagnocat and AI in DTX. These tools can help the practitioner feel more comfortable in confirming their diagnosis or maybe something that they may have missed because they are new to the clinical experience. Secondly, we can actually leverage AI in other aspects of our practice. Patient Prism, for example, is an innovative software platform designed to improve call handling and patient conversion rates. The platform leverages AI for organization and patient scheduling to streamline operations and boost patient engagement without additional marketing expenditures.
Kalpesh Patel, DDS. Founder and CEO of Active Dental (Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas): I am following the economy and now it may affect case acceptance. To see if patients will shy away from optional additional services.
Nimesh Patel, DMD. COO of Brite Dental Partners (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.): There are three main trends I'm following. No. 1 is labor costs. In an inflationary environment, team members are leaving for pay raises elsewhere. Profitability can quickly evaporate with higher salaries required by new team members and more assistants required by inefficient new graduate doctors. Second is aligner costs. There are many new competitors on the market and Invisalign is constantly updating its fees and discounts. Lastly is the cost of marketing and SEO. Google is emphasizing video and its own AI and deemphasizing blog posts (the traditional way we build SEO onto our websites), so we're paying closer attention to our adspend and exploring other options.
Blair Primis. Chief Marketing Officer of Flagship Specialty Partners (Charlotte, N.C.): At Flagship Specialty Partners, we are demystifying the role managed services partners play in oral healthcare. The MSO approach enables oral surgeons to focus exclusively on what matters most to them, their patients, while simultaneously providing a strategic, business-led partnership model to create better outcomes and accelerate revenue and growth.
Raj Puri, DDS. Owner of Smiles Dental Center (Wood Dale, Ill.): The issues we're following most closely for the second half of the year are the ongoing hiring issues with the limited talent pool, onboarding team members and team retention strategies. We are interested to learn new strategies on hiring top talent and what those individuals are looking for in a career with or without experience. How do we efficiently and consistently onboard these team members so we turn any new hire into great team members. We will also focus on what our current team members need and want to better understand why some team members leave while others stay and thrive.
David Sopp. Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at First Choice Dental (Madison, Wis.): I'm following mergers and acquisitions in the DSO market. Specifically, deal pace and transaction sizes. The pace of acquisitions has increased during 2024 after a cost and availability of capital-driven slowdown and resulting internal operations focus during 2023. I expect the 2024 first half pace to be sustained during the second half of the year as the economy continues to be strong, DSOs again access debt capital and interest rates potentially begin to decline. I’m also looking for a consolidation of consolidators to occur as the DSO market matures and larger group DSOs seek liquidity, although the timing of this is uncertain.
Candace VanCamp. Director of Payer Strategy of MB2 Dental (Dallas): The industry is trying to find reimbursement certainty in a network environment that is ever changing. Leases are the norm, and carriers nor dental office staff can advise which network will be utilized for claim adjudication when so many networks are leasing from competitor networks. It’\'s become very confusing and we're seeing the impact at the dental offices with case acceptance.