CDA Essentials 2018 • Volume 5 • Issue 7

23 Issue 7 | 2018 | N ews and E vents 24% have 5 or more operatories 62% urban location 46% had 5 or more hygiene days 11% of practices have 5 or more dentists News Canadian Dental Practice Consolidation Continues A shift in the composition of the modern Canadian dental practice is continuing, according to the results of the 2018 Dental Industry Association of Canada (DIAC) Future of Dentistry Survey. Trends that emerged from the 22nd instalment of this annual DIAC survey include: • An increasing number of dentists in dental practices, with 11% of practices reporting that they have 5 or more dentists. This same figure was just 3.4% in 2016 and has averaged 6.3% over the last 14 years. • A greater number of operatories in a practice. Practices with “3 or fewer operatories” has been declining since the survey began (an overall drop of ~40% since 1997) and 28% of respondents in 2018 planned to add at least 1 operatory. • A growing percentage of respondents describing their location as “urban” (62% compared to 56% in 2017 and 51% in 2016) along with a drop in those describing their location as “suburban” (22% as opposed to 29% last year). • The number of “hygiene days per practice” is increasing (46% of respondents had 5 or more hygiene days per week) while at the same time, the average number of patients treated per day continues to decline. On an overall basis, dentists treated 11 patients in an average day compared to 12.5 patients over the last 10 years. Reinforcing the 2017 survey results, dentists continue to move into “multi-practice structure” (aka group practice). Although the majority of respondents (63%) stated they were in a solo practice, more than one-third (34%) are now in a group practice—and these group practices are getting bigger with 24% having 5 or more operatories (compared to 17% last year). The main advantages attracting dentists to a multi-practice structure were “associate support” (57%), “buying power” (20%) and “better hours for patients” (12%). The majority of group practice respondents (63%) felt they offered a “higher standard of care” than a solo practitioner. But for those that disagreed with that statement, the cited drawbacks of a multi- practice structure were “conflict with management style” (29%) and “consistency of care” (21%). The top challenge for respondent in 2018 was “financial/paying bills/overhead,” with “getting more patients/keep busy” a close second. The majority of dental practices now offer patient financing in some fashion, reinforcing results from 2017 when almost