Dpr1214 c pdf d I s c o V e r y

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5 shifts that may affect 

2015 in a big way  

Expect to see the growth of group practices, PPOs, more educated 

patients and more dental-medical collaborations in the new 

year. And yes, as usual, technology advances also will be big.

[

 

by Stan Goff, Editor in Chief

 ]

December 2014

  

|

  

DENTAL

PRODUCTS

REPORT.COM

  

|

  

65

These industry-shifting trends started to take root this 

year and should carry over and bring even more changes 

to the dental world in 2015. 

TOP INDUSTRY

 

TRENDS

TRENDS

5

LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME, 

we talked about some key 

trends heading into 2014, and many of those same 

trends will continue to play a big role in the dental 

industry in 2015 and beyond. In that December 2013 

issue of Dental Products Report, we talked about 

things like the development in dental materials, the 

growth in usage of tablets, prevention of dental dis-

eases, the evolution of dental CAD/CAM technolo-

gies and new revenue streams.

Those f ve topics were indeed trending this past year 

and we expect them to continue trending. Because of 

this, you can expect plenty more coverage on each of 

them in the pages of DPR in 2015 as well as on dental-

productsreport.com and in our family of e-newsletters.

But now it’s time to take a peek ahead, to look brief y 

at f ve industry-shifting trends whose seeds have been 

planted and that we anticipate will grow into topics 

that you can not afford to ignore in the new year. So 

here you’ll read a little about these f ve new trends: The 

growth of the group practice, the inf uence of PPOs, 

medical-dental collaborations (including EHR), “More 

technology, more options” including Google Glass, 

and the more educated patient. You can not only plan 

to learn more on each of these topics in 2015, but you 

can currently f nd detailed articles and information 

on these trends online at dentalproductsreport.com, 

practicemanagement.dentalproductsreport.com

 and 

dentalproductsreport.com/hygiene

.

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66

  

|

  

DENTAL

PRODUCTS

REPORT.COM

  

|

  

December 2014

Growth of the group practice

For some clinicians, the thought of 

being part of a group practice may 

not seem ideal ... and it may not be 

ideal for everyone. But group prac-

tices are growing and the days of 

solo practices being the model for the 

large majority of dental practices are 

slipping away. There are a number 

of reasons why consolidation and 

acquisition are indeed the future of 

dentistry and something to keep an 

eye on as we head into 2015.

Dr. Marc B. Cooper, a dentist and 

a practice management consultant, 

offers up the following reasons why 

he believes the shift will continue:

• Dentistry always follows 

medicine—always. 

• Costs continue to go up.

• Third parties will continue to 

exert downward pressure. 

• The dental industry is severely 

fragmented, with 86 percent of the 

dentists practicing solo.

• Dentistry as an industry is 

recession-resistant, growing at an 

annualized rate of over f ve percent. 

Dental school debt can be as high as 

$250,000 or more. 

“For the last 100 years, [dentistry] 

has been performed in small solo 

practices, maybe [with] one partner. 

That was suff cient in the system or 

the context that it was in,” Dr. Coo-

per said recently in an interview with 

DPR. “But the context has changed, 

and context is decisive. With the con-

text changed, the system has changed. 

Solo or small partner practice will no 

longer have the viability it did in the 

old context. In the old days, any den-

tist could just put up a sign and they 

were in business. Not anymore.” 

The inf uence of PPOs

Fee-for-service (FFS) dentistry and 

the inf uence of PPOs will continue 

to be a hot topic in dentistry. 

On the Dental Practice Manage-

ment website (practicemanagement.

dentalproductsreport.com), you’ll 

f nd plenty of information on this 

topic, including comments from con-

sultant and dental insurance expert 

Teresa Duncan, who had this to say:

“While FFS will always have a 

place in off ces, we cannot deny the 

trend of PPO coverage and how it is 

affecting our practices. I’ve spoken 

to a good number of dentists who 

are adamant about staying off insur-

ance lists. However, this is not the 

majority of practicing dentists. Plan 

recruiters in many areas routinely 

deny fee schedule negotiations and 

let providers who threaten to leave 

a PPO walk. This only happens in 

a PPO-dominated environment. 

Patients will vote with their wal-

lets … this is American consumer 

behavior. What will separate suc-

cessful off ces is the ability to provide 

quality service and a great patient 

experience. High-quality dentistry 

and PPOs are not mutually exclusive. 

Plenty of practices have found the 

formula for prof tability and partici-

pation. Half the battle is accepting 

that your business model must shift 

to accommodate industry changes.”

This trend will def nitely be worth 

keeping a close eye on in 2015.  

Medical-dental collaborations 

(including EHR)

Expect to see the dental industry 

and the medical industry to continue 

working together and sharing things 

that will help both sides as well as 

their patients. In fact, in November, 

the third annual D. Walter Cohen, 

DDS, Integration of Dental and 

Medical Conference took place 

(dentalmedica lconference.com). 

This three-day conference addressed 

the benef ts of collaboration between 

physicians, dentists and other allied 

health professionals, promoting a 

holistic, integrated approach to car-

ing for patients. Additionally, things 

that have long been critical in the 

medical f eld like EHR and HIPAA, 

will continue to have larger impacts 

in dentistry. In 2014, we provided 

expanded coverage on these topics 

and will continue to do so in 2015.

“More technology, more 

options” / Google Glass

No future trend can ignore evolving 

technology, and we expect to see 

CAD/CAM technology continue to 

boom in 2015 and the numbers of 

dental professionals using tablets 

will surely grow. But exciting new 

technologies will give you more 

options as you look to improve your 

eff ciency and patient care.

The idea of Google Glass helping 

dentists may just take off and change 

the way a lot of clinicians practice. 

When the concept of Google Glass 

was f rst announced, it didn’t take 

long for dental professionals (and 

our own technology editor, Dr. John 

Flucke) to wonder how the invention 

would impact dentistry. A group of 

dental students from the University 

of Michigan appears to have taken 

a big leap toward answering that 

question.

After watching their YouTube 

video detailing their usage of Google 

Glass loupes, DPR’s Group Edito-

rial Director Kevin Henry had the 

chance to sit down and talk with 

Kevin Kuo, one of the inventors. Kuo 

joins fellow Wolverines Mikhail 

Garibov, Shalini Kamodia and Dan-

iel Hammaker to form Dentyzion, 

a company that they describe as “a 

unique dental consulting company.” 

Kuo told us, “For (Google Glass) to 

be truly useful in the practice, it has 

to work with the systems already in 

place and that is something we are 

working toward.”

The more educated patient

Pretty much everyone uses the Inter-

net for a variety of things that just a 

few years ago seemed unimaginable. 

Patients search the Internet for infor-

mation about their health and for 

clinicians, and even to shop for value 

when choosing doctors, dentists and 

treatments. Additionally, ratings 

sites not only seem to be everywhere, 

but some of them are very powerful.

So you need to make sure to moni-

tor your social media presence and 

develop methods to get that good 

word-of-mouth out on your practice. 

There are a number of companies 

and consultants currently available 

that can help ensure you are getting 

your message out to the more-edu-

cated patient, and to make sure you 

aren’t hurt badly if a patient were to 

post a negative review or two.

We will make sure to stay on top 

of this and these other hot trends 

as we head off into what should 

be another great year in the dental 

industry.

“

       What will sepa-

rate successful 

off ces is

 the ability 

to provide quality 

service

 and a great 

patient experience. 

—TERESA DUNCAN

 

Sesame Communications + Healthgrades This strategic partnership is designed 

to let dental practitioners access millions of prospective patients seeking dental services. 

It is key for today’s practices to stay in touch with a more educated patient base.

TOP INDUSTRY

 

TRENDS

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