The Biggest Challenges Dentists Face in 2024

Every dental practice has its share of challenges, even those that exist within a Dental Service Organization (DSO) or in our case a Dental Leadership Organization (DLO). Specific trends emerge when analyzing top challenges facing dental managers this year.

This article highlights those top challenges with tips for dental practice managers to avoid roadblocks.

1. Maintaining a full patient load

Maintaining consistent patient volume is always among the biggest issues dental leaders face. Thirty-six percent of dental leaders recently polled by the American Dental Association (ADA), believe their practice is “Not busy enough, could have treated more patients.”

To stay ahead of the competition, an ongoing commitment is necessary to create new ideas to retain loyal patients and attract new patients. Priority must be placed on referral programs, digital marketing, and other community and healthcare partnerships to drive patient volume.

For nagging issues like last-minute cancellations, a robust reminder program helps keep the practice on schedule. Dental practices may want to consider offering incentives to those patients who consistently keep their appointments.

Striving to optimize patient load for every doctor in a dental practice continues to be a high priority for Lightwave Dental, which prides itself as a Dental Leadership Organization. For more information on the ADA research, check out their March 2024 Q1 Economic Outlook and Emerging Issues in Dentistry report, which included 550 responses from dental leaders.

2. Difficulty filling team member roles and recruiting with unique hiring strategies

It’s no surprise to those dental practice managers in the trenches that consulting giant McKinsey & Co. projects a shortage of more than 36,000 dental professionals by 2031.

Other alarming data from the ADA’s March 2024 report, notes:

• 72% of dental practices find recruiting hygienists as “extremely challenging.”
• 77% find recruiting dental assistants as “extremely challenging or very challenging.”
• 69% find recruiting dentists is “extremely challenging or very challenging.”
• 64% find recruiting administrative team as “extremely challenging or very challenging.”

Attracting and retaining clinicians can be a struggle even for those practices with a vibrant culture. It’s no longer sufficient to simply offer competitive benefits packages. The best-managed dental practices offer continuing education opportunities to help their team grow.

Overcoming hiring shortages by combining various generations within the practice is also key. Creative team-building ideas and a commitment to ongoing training are necessary to make sure each “Gen” has opportunities to thrive.

Practices in the Lightwave Dental community are encouraged to cultivate their distinctive workplace culture with appealing incentives that value team members, so they don’t feel compelled to leave. Hygienists throughout the Lightwave footprint are treated like superstars to help them grow personally and professionally. From thorough onboarding to fun continuing education events such as Hygiene Rodeo to competitive pay and benefits, valuing each as an individual star is a top priority for retention.

3. Training for increased demand in restorative and corrective treatments

Providing regular training and professional development opportunities is central to the Lightwave ethos. Top dental leaders, clinicians, and team members are invited each year to attend Lightwave LAUNCH, the dental leadership conference featuring workshops, continuing education, training, and opportunities for clinicians to learn from one another. Lightwave is known industry-wide for its group role in fostering positive work environments where teams feel valued and motivated.

Investing in continuing education programs for high-demand treatments gives dental leaders opportunities to grow and become more profitable to the practice. Mentorship also plays a significant role in bridging the generations.

4. Rising costs and streamlining complex insurance reimbursements

With costs continuing to rise in 2024, it is more expensive than ever to operate a dental practice. Insurance reimbursements also continue to lag, creating significant revenue cycle management challenges for many practices. Most dental practice managers can benefit from optimizing their systems and incorporating technologies to operate as efficiently as possible.

Creating efficient workflows and standardized processes enables Lightwave to collect large amounts of clinical and operational data. This information is available real-time to help dental practice leaders learn and adjust.

Unlocking the potential of information is the biggest opportunity for most dental practices this year. For members of DSOs, it is important to request this data to learn and benchmark across multiple dental practices.

5. Sustaining growth

Most challenges facing dental practices today revolve around sustaining growth. An important way to address this key challenge is to establish a dynamic professional development plan for each member of the clinical team. Developing comprehensive personal, professional, and financial goals, and regularly tracking achievement of those goals, provides each clinician and team member with clear growth targets.

Lightwave is distinguished by its industry-leading Every Doctor, Every Quarter program to track and review key performance indicators with dental leaders on a regular basis. This informs investment in continuing education to expand specializations that can attract new patients. It also informs capital expenditures for new technologies to improve patient care and practice efficiency. High-performing clinicians have a pathway to grow both personally and professionally.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

These challenges represent complex and pressing issues for modern dental practices. It only stands to reason as the Dental Leadership Organization that Lightwave is continuously addressing these big issues through strategic planning, investment in people and technology, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like more information on this or other subjects. If you are a dentist looking to grow, learn more about how Lightwave Dental is obsessed with our doctors growth, development, and treating doctors as their #1 customer.