Rising to the Challenges

Another year is coming to a close, and that means it's time for Inside Dentistry's annual Trends in Dentistry issue. One overarching trend that all practice owners can probably agree on is that it's been a difficult year to run a successful practice. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, practice owners have faced a variety of different challenges to their profitability, including increased patient cancellations and issues related to staffing and the division of workload.

According to the most recent data from the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute (ie, October 2023), 81% of the responding practice owners reported that patient no-shows and cancellations with less than 24 hours' notice remain the most significant barriers to filling their appointment schedules, which is a troubling trend that has required scheduling gymnastics and the implementation of new rules/penalties. Staffing issues are further complicating success, with only 62% of the respondents reporting that they currently have an adequate number of dental hygienists and 94% indicating that recruiting them has been extremely or very challenging. Furthermore, for 35% of the respondents, challenges in recruiting have led to changes in the division of workload between dentists and their team members, with 50% of those dentists indicating that they often have to handle more of the duties traditionally performed by dental hygienists, assistants, and administrative staff.

To meet these and other challenges, dentists are implementing new technologies, workflows, practice models, and more. This month's cover story, Trends in Dentistry 2023, presents the results of Inside Dentistry's recent readership surveys addressing the business, clinical, and product-related aspects of practice. What types of devices and other technologies are dentists using? What levels of case acceptance and new patient referrals are being achieved? How much work is being done in-house versus through collaboration with dental laboratories? To get a better idea of where you stand in the profession, benchmark your practice against those of your peers with statistics on these questions and more. I hope that you find it to be informative and learn something that you can use to improve your practice in the coming year!

Robert C. Margeas, DDS
Editor-in-Chief, Inside Dentistry
Private Practice, Des Moines, Iowa
Adjunct Professor
Department of Operative Dentistry
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
robert.margeas@broadcastmed.com