The dental industry has had to adjust to the effects of inflation and staffing shortages over the last couple of years, leading to less productivity and revenue.
Several dental leaders recently joined the Becker's Dental + DSO Virtual Event to discuss the best strategies for DSOs to persevere during tough economic times.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: How have you seen economic challenges affect the dental industry?
Alex Einbinder, DDS. Owner of Grace Dental Smiles (West Babylon, N.Y.): I think one of the biggest challenges is the PPO insurance and Medicaid reimbursements. They're pretty much behind at least 10 years compared to inflation, which is driving up the cost to run a dental office ... We know our costs are going up, but especially with dental, I think the cost is going up even quicker, and even more so when you have reimbursements just staying the same. That's really difficult, so that's something I've definitely had a problem with. The other big issue is staffing, which pretty much speaks for itself.
Gabriela Hricko, DDS. Orthodontist at Great Expressions Dental Centers (Southfield, Mich.): I also feel like we can look at the patient level, and then at the office level. The patients have less disposable income to spend in the dental office, and that's a factor. At the office level, we have the staffing shortages, the increase of goods, paying staff wages, things like that, so we kind of look at it in two different ways. Both sides were being squeezed on, and [we] need to come up with some creative ways to solve those problems.
Andrew Goldsmith, DDS. Owner of Northshore Dental (Houston, Texas): Across the board, we've seen productivity is relatively down or flat. Profitability has been squeezed. Costs of goods have increased. For example, a box of gloves has almost doubled in price since the pandemic. Hygiene salaries have increased somewhere between 10% and 15% just in the last four years. [There have also been] changes in the economic flow of the practice. For example, if people were shut down during the pandemic, it used to be predictable that a month like February or September would be low. That's kind of switched. In Texas, for example, we were closed in March and April. So now it not only has affected our March and April numbers, but it also has affected our September and October numbers, so we've seen that as well.
Joseph Silberman, DMD. Owner of Evanston (Ill.) Dental Associates: I think I have a unique situation in the sense that I'm a 100% fee-for-service practice. I don't rely on insurance-based payments and things like that, so when the economy is perceived to have a downturn, I think what's happening is more of the elective procedures are not being met, where people aren't doing as much cosmetic work and maybe Invisalign, things like that, but I'm always trying to maintain the highest quality of my standards. I think that really helps in terms of maintaining the patient flow because even in an economic downturn, people still realize they need to care for their teeth, whether or not they want to do the above and beyond kind of care is a different story. So trying to maintain that level is really important. Obviously, since Covid, we all know about the hygiene issue in terms of the lack of hygienists around, and those hygienists that are around, you're paying them a lot of money to practice. It's trying to get as many people in the door, and trying to do the best you can do for each individual.