{"id":10743,"date":"2024-02-14T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T17:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/?p=10743"},"modified":"2024-12-30T10:03:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T18:03:17","slug":"dso-patient-trend-predictions-for-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/blog\/dso-patient-trend-predictions-for-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"DSO Patient Trends &amp; Predictions for 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This article was written by Planet DDS staff and originally published on <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drbicuspid.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\"><em>DrBicuspid.com<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Dentists and DSO leaders across the country were right on target when they predicted the performance of the U.S. economy, maintaining patient volumes, and maintaining production would be among their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drbicuspid.com\/dental-practice\/article\/15380440\/what-dentists-can-expect-to-face-in-the-next-6-months\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">top challenges in 2023<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">In many cases, they changed the way they manage patient expectations to offer a better patient experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">In December, we asked DSO leaders to share their thoughts on:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">What was a top patient trend of 2023?<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">What\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/blog\/dental-industry-trends\/\">dental patient trend<\/a> you predict for 2024?<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">How are you preparing for that?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Some of their answers have been lightly edited for clarity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Mick Janness, CEO of Oakpoint (44 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington, D.C.)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">In 2023, we experienced year-over-year patient growth with our clinical teams quickly identifying the need to increase appointment availability as a strategic initiative. For our general dental facilities, our clinical teams treated approximately 190,000 patients in 2022 and in 2023 for the same cohort, our general dental facilities treated more than 200,000 patients. We achieved this year-over-year patient growth by optimizing the schedule per the standards of our clinical teams. Our marketing team collaborated closely with our clinical teams and flexed spend to match capacity across our schedules.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Because we are in some of the fastest growing MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas) in the country, we expect patient growth to track at or above the 2023 trendline.\u202fWe are experiencing a greater than normal backlog inside our oral surgery facilities and our general dental patient volume remains strong across the footprint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">We continue to make investments in expanding our operatory capacity when possible. Where our clinical schedules are booked out beyond the norm, we are equipping operatories and staffing appropriately to accommodate the anticipated patient growth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Dr. Larry Moray, Founder &amp; CEO of MyOrthodontist North Carolina \/ Key Dental Management Solutions (14 locations in North Carolina)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The higher inflation numbers and rising prices we have all endured\u202fin 2023 resulted in\u202fmany folks being reticent to\u202finitiate orthodontic treatment. We addressed this by acknowledging their concerns and offering more creative and patient-friendly financing options to decrease or remove cost as a barrier to initiating treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">As inflation and unemployment have decreased, the Fed is poised to lower interest\u202frates and we anticipate more patients feeling more comfortable with\u202fpursuing dental and orthodontic care. We are\u202fexpanding\u202ffacilities, teams and schedules to accommodate greater\u202fdemand and more patients.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Dr. Kalpesh Patel, Founder and CEO of Active Dental (4 locations in Texas)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">As interest rates went up in 2023, people were being careful about where they spent their money. We saw this everywhere in society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">We know people want to have a healthy smile, and we focused more attention on patient education to help them understand the importance of moving ahead with the dental treatment they need. Gone are the days where you can say \u201cyou need a crown,\u201d and the patient just says okay. Now we can show them where there is decay through technology such as Pearl AI and iTero scanners. It helps them co-diagnose, and helps us earn our patients\u2019 trust.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">We anticipate technology will make the patient journey even better in 2024. Already, most practices have adopted online scheduling and digital forms, and many are adding patient education tools such as AI for X-ray analysis and 3D imaging to help their patients better understand the condition of their mouths. Even billing will be easier for the patients, with options such as automated text-to-pay reminders and customized payment plans.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article was written by Planet DDS staff and originally published on DrBicuspid.com Dentists and DSO leaders across the country were right on target when they predicted the performance of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1417,138],"tags":[1137,1138,1139,1140,1141,1142,1143,1144,1145,1146,1147,1148,1149,1150,1151],"class_list":["post-10743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","category-trends","tag-3d-dental-imaging","tag-ai-in-dentistry","tag-automated-dental-billing","tag-dental-patient-trends-2023","tag-dental-technology-adoption","tag-digital-dental-forms","tag-dso-growth-strategies","tag-economic-impact-on-dental-care","tag-increasing-dental-appointments","tag-itero-scanners","tag-metropolitan-dental-demand","tag-online-dental-scheduling","tag-operatory-capacity-expansion","tag-orthodontic-treatment-financing","tag-patient-education-in-dentistry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}