After decades of steady growth, national dental expenditures began to slow in the early 2000s, years before the economy soured, according to the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Research Center. However, the Center has also found that between 2000 and 2010, spending among those who visited the dentist increased among the elderly and those in higher income brackets.
This suggests that despite the US recession, and despite fewer adults visiting the dentist, baby boomers are saving the profession.
“As a result of the aging baby boomers, the elderly population is projected to increase from 48 million in 2015 to 92 million in 2060,” according to the brief “Per-patient Dental Expenditure Rising, Driven by Baby Boomers.” “The rising proportion of those over 65 years old combined with relatively high per-patient dental expenditures among the elderly could significantly increase the dental expenditures among adults with a visit, buoying up the dental economy for years to come.”
Because fewer seniors are requiring dentures and retaining their teeth, they remain subject to oral diseases and disorders.
“In general, retired boomers will require more dental services than previous senior cohorts and purchase more intensive services than younger patients,” according to the brief, which was authored by Tom Wall, Kamyar Nasseh, Ph.D., and Marko Vujicic, Ph.D.
Among adults 65 and older, real annual dental expenditures in the 2000s increased from $655 to $796 per person. For adults 21 to 64 in that same time period, the per-patient expense rose from $557 to $664. Average real per-patient dental expenditures rose from $600 in 2000 to $653 in 2010, according to HPRC.
While there was an increase in individual dental spending among older patients, nationwide, the average remained flat. In 2011, national dental expenditure was $108 billion, slightly up from $107 billion in 2010 (in inflation-adjusted 2011 dollars). In 2011, dental expenditures accounted for 4 per cent of overall national health care spending, down from 4.5 per cent of national health expenditure in 2000.
There are a number of factors that may have contributed to a slowness in dental spending but the main one is declining dental care utilization among adults, according to HPRC.
On the flip side, on average, more children, particularly low-income children, are visiting the dentist, but their care is typically less costly, according to HPRC.
“Taken together, our results suggest very strongly that the dental economy is in a major transition. Dental spending has not rebounded since the end of the Great Recession and has been stagnant, on a per capita basis, since 2008,” wrote Dr Vujicic, managing vice president of HPRC, in the brief “National Dental Expenditure Flat Since 2008, Began to Slow in 2002.” “More importantly, in our view, our analysis shows convincingly that the dental economy began to slow well before the onset of the recent economic downturn. While overall health spending also began to slow in the early 2000s, the slowdown in dentistry is far more pronounced.”
Dentists have entered a new reality in their profession. ADA leaders are trying to make sense of the data and figure out how to help dentists adjust.
“What this research shows is how dramatically dental care utilization and spending are shifting in the United States,” Dr Vujicic said.
