Dear DrBicuspid Member,
Here in the U.S., it's the Fourth of July, a day set aside to celebrate our country's independence. I hope you are able to spend it with family and friends while staying safe as well.
This week on DrBicuspid.com, some of our most-read articles followed two trends: statistics/predictions and lessons learned by your colleagues that can potentially help you in the second half of 2020.
Let's start with the numbers, and we'll begin with a bit of an alarming trend from the past before looking to the future.
About half of adults reported they or a family member skipped dental and medical visits due to COVID-19 in a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, despite a surge of people leaving home more frequently to shop, visit family, and work. It's further proof that while some of your patients eagerly embraced the opportunity to come back to your practice, others are still nervous and waiting.
So what does that mean for the second half of the year and beyond? Dental spending in the U.S. is estimated to plummet by up to 38% of projected pre-COVID-19 levels in 2020. At roughly $92 billion, that would be $56 billion less than projected before the pandemic, according to the latest data released by the ADA's Health Policy Institute (HPI).
Where is the good news in these numbers? These stats may be harrowing to dentists and their teams, but the projections are not nearly as ugly as the ones previously reported in the spring by HPI. The link to those numbers is within the article above.
How about some lessons learned from your colleagues? We'll start with Dr. David Rice, clinical editor for DrBicuspid.com, as he recalls the time that he and a patient weren't on the same page when it came to what her completed case should look like. He tells that story and the lesson he learned from it in this week's video on another of the seven deadly sins of smile design.
A lot has changed for the dental industry in the first six months of the year. Dr. Sheri Doniger discusses those changes and how they've affected her practice, patients, and the dental industry overall. Will dentistry miss the "good old days" or move forward, adapt, and change?
Our final lesson of the week comes from Dr. Alvin Danenberg. As patients become more educated about health, longevity, and the importance of a robust immune system, they will demand healthcare professionals to guide them in their decisions. With that in mind, Dr. Danenberg believes this is the time for dentistry to truly understand the interrelationships between the mouth and the rest of the body.
Thank you, as always, for reading DrBicuspid.com. Happy Fourth of July!
