Trends in Dentistry
Inside Dental Technology recently published an article titled, “Trends in Dentistry, Forces impacting the dental industry’s course in 2014 and beyond,” which analyzes the current state of the dental industry including an economic outlook, gender shift and digital push for the future.
Here at The Dental Geek, we realize how important it is to stay up to date with the ever-changing trends in dentistry, so we immediately wanted to share the insight we learned from this informative article.
The article states that, “Dentistry has entered into a new economic reality that is reshaping the profession.” With the past four years of declining production from 75% of dental offices in the United States, finally 2014 is showing signs of reversal. Many factors contribute to this new predication of growth including insurance-based dentistry, gender shifts in the field with a rising female demographic and large technology pressures from manufacturers and patients.
Below are some quick facts from the article we thought you should know:
- Male dentists are practicing an average of 34 hours per week, while female dentists practice 27 hours per week
- There will be 15 new dental schools opening in the coming years
- Since 2005, dentists have experienced a 13% decline in their average annual income, even though spending on dental care by patients has increased each successive year
- By the year 2020 (just 6 years away), the majority of practicing dentists will be women, and over the next 10-20 years, this increased influx of women into the field of dentistry may be one of the most defining forces in the entire make-up, culture and practice organization in dentistry
- 60% of practicing dentists under the age of 44 are women
- The market for chairside milling is slowly, but steadily, increasing, with an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5% between 2012 and 2019, which will increase the approximately 12,650 chairside milling units in use in the United States in 2012 to an estimated 22,087 by 2019
- Most graduating dentists are coming out of dental school with anywhere from 150-300K worth of student loan debt, and 41% of all graduating dentists say this debt load influences their practice choice (the reason many join a group practice as opposed to establishing a solo practice)
- The average retirement age for dentists is now 68.3 years
As dental professionals, are you experiencing the trends discussed within this Inside Dental Technology article? What do you feel these facts mean for the industry as a whole? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below, or feel free to comment on our Facebook or Twitter pages! Don’t forget to read the full article at www.dentalaegis.com.
This is a great article! I’m going to send it to my Dentist.
Undoubtedly, every dentist will care the dentistry future. Female dentists are more careful and patient than male dentists, are suitable for service. The future dentistry will revive.
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