This year, dentistry faced many challenges. From the possible consequences of risky billing practices to declining economic confidence to rising costs, dentists navigated a complex landscape, and DrBicuspid covered it all.
Here is a countdown of the top practice management stories from 2025, based on reader views.
5. Dentists aren’t feeling great about this situation
By late 2025, roughly half of dentists reported feeling confident in their practices, yet about two-thirds remained doubtful about the U.S. economy, with overall economic confidence still down from early 2025. Consumer spending rose since the pandemic, but the gains were largely absorbed within existing practice operations.
4. The dental industry's economic tightrope: What DrBicuspid readers told us in a survey
Adobe Stock/Elnur.
Additionally, a DrBicuspid.com survey conducted in August 2025 revealed that dental practices are facing rising costs, staffing shortages, and patient spending concerns, creating tough decisions around fees, salaries, and practice sustainability.
The data paint a portrait of cautious optimism tempered by very real economic anxieties that are likely reshaping how dental practices operate and plan for the future.
3. Dentists’ faith in the U.S. economy takes crash dive
Data showed that dentists’ economic outlook worsened in 2025, with confidence in their practices and the dental sector declining for the second quarter. Factors driving this pessimism included the current administration, tariffs, rising costs, and inflation.
2. Dentistry in the U.S. may be failing
U.S. dentistry may be quietly declining due to commercialization, rising student debt, and professional burnout, according to a perspective published in July. Proposed solutions include reinvesting in public dental education, enhancing clinical accountability, refocusing continuing, integrating dentistry into broader healthcare, and fostering international collaboration, DrBicuspid.com reported.
1. This dangerous dental billing practice can get you audited
Estela Vargas, CRDH.Estela Vargas, CRDH/Remote Sourcing.
In May, Estela Vargas, CRDH, highlighted how relying on outdated or incorrect billing knowledge places dental practices at risk of being audited.
Accurate coding, thorough documentation, and prompt correction of errors are essential to maintain compliance. Understanding procedure-to-code relationships may help protect dentists from unbundling risks and ensure ethical billing.
