By Marko Vujicic, Ph.D.
It is an exciting time for the dental profession! Many trends are converging to accelerate changes in how dentists practice, who goes into the dental profession, how dentists are paid, what patients expect from their dental care experience, and how dentistry is regulated as a health care service. There are also significant trends in who has had a dental visit over a year and who has not. I will share the latest trends nationally and in Florida, specifically at the Florida Dental Association’s (FDA) Leaders Emerging Among Dentistry (LEAD) program and with the FDA’s House of Delegates in January.
My hunch is that many trends emerging strictly from the data might make leaders in organized dentistry slightly uncomfortable. That is okay; part of leadership is confronting uncomfortable facts. Another aspect is what I call ‘letting go.’ That is, accepting that the status quo is not sustainable. Acknowledging that practice models are evolving and will continue to evolve – faster and faster, in my view. Patient expectations, loyalty to clinicians, and prioritizing convenience and costs are all changing among the patient base and are about to change faster. In my view, it is important for leaders in organized dentistry to look ahead to the next decade and proactively chart a new course for the profession.
There are so many opportunities to elevate dentistry. Less than half of Americans go to the dentist within a given year. Why? More importantly, is this an organized dentistry vision, or do we want millions more Americans in a dental home? In Florida, about 40% of new graduates practice in DSOs and large group practices. Practice ownership rates continue to fall, and solo practice continues to be less prominent, particularly among early- and mid-career dentists. Why? And, more importantly, why does this matter? Join me for a lively, provocative, data-driven discussion in Orlando in January. To hear Marko Vujicic and his sessions on the future of dentistry, register for the LEAD program at floridadental.org/lead.
Marko Vujicic currently serves as chief economist and vice president of the Health Policy Institute at the American Dental Association. Previously, he was a senior economist with The World Bank in Washington, D.C., where he focused on health systems reform in developing countries and directed the global health workforce policy program. He was also a health economist with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. In these roles, Dr. Vujicic led large-scale strategic initiatives to bring cutting-edge data and research to specific health policy challenges.
Dr. Vujicic has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals such as Health Affairs, The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Health Services Research, Health Economics, Social Science and Medicine and Medical Care. He is also the lead author of the book Working in Health, which examines health workforce challenges globally and has written several book chapters on health care policy issues. His team’s work has been cited by CNN, The New York Times, NBC News, CNBC, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, PBS NOVA, and The Atlantic. He has been invited to provide testimony to federal and state legislative committees.
Dr. Vujicic holds several academic appointments. He is an adjunct senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, and affiliate faculty at the Center for Health and the Social Sciences, University of Chicago, as well as the Center for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto and a visiting assistant professor at Tufts University.
Dr. Vujicic obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor’s in Business from McGill University in Montreal.
Beyond the Bite 