The Big PictureFewer dental practice owners—is that good or bad?
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Background
At this point in history, less than 50% of physicians own their own private practice. Most work as employee doctors and focus on patient care rather than the business side of medicine. In dentistry, however, 80% of dentists in private practice are owners, but the trend is toward a slow decline in the numbers of dentist-owners (Figure). At this pace, by 2090, dentistry will also have less than 50% dentist-owners. A view of the implications of this decline in practice ownership and the probable
Implications of declining ownership
Currently dental ownership is a highly coveted commodity, seen as offering dentists the opportunity to be their own bosses. Ownership of a practice is one of the top 3 factors attracting dentists to their profession. Most dental school graduates expect to work in a private practice setting. Owner-dentists earn more than employee-dentists, although differences in career satisfaction levels between the two groups remain in question.
Dentists also see private practice ownership as a plus for
What does the future hold?
The decline in ownership is likely to continue into the future. To prepare for this change in practice type, dentists can look at the situation among physicians, whose trend has already reached the less-than-50% benchmark. What we see is that physicians tend to be fairly content, having adjusted to the change. Their net hourly income is significantly higher than for dentists, although it is lower than for physician-owners. In addition, they are generally satisfied with their careers and would
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Vujicic M: Practice ownership is declining. J Am Dent Assoc 148:690-692, 2017
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