 |
When the economy was declining in recent years, people chose to skip dental visits instead of cutting other costs. That trend may be changing, however.
But the problems have worsened for the patients who now have some dental issues that need to be taken care of and cost will be significantly more than it would have been before. Being proactive about one’s dental health would have saved a lot of money.
There were more than a third of Americans who chose not to visit a dentist during 2008, according a Kaiser tracking survey. It was one of the top ways people tried to limit spending on health care in 2008.
There were some dentists forced to lay off staff, cut office hours or both.
But the trend is going in the other direction now. Dental profit margins were up 15 percent in 2010, after dropping from 17 percent to 13 percent from 2007 to 2008. This information comes from a study done by Sageworks, a company that analyzes financial trends.
This doesn’t mean the number of patients has increased. Instead of coming in for proactive treatment, there are now more people with major dental problems that come with major costs.
Another problem is that among the roughly 172 millions Americans under 65, there are about 45 million without dental insurance. And the coverage doesn’t necessarily cover some of the more involved procedures. That’s why some dentists have to work with the patient to create a long-term treatment plan to maximize the dental coverage.
|
