SALARY

This might be an unpopular opinion but I believe salary will be reduced for associate dentists/hygienists as offices incur additional expenses to PPE & social distancing guidelines impact the volume of patients seen at a practice at any given time. 

However, I believe that we can offset this imbalance by treatment planning longer appointments which minimizes the number of visits in our offices.

I’ve already come into contact with hygienists requesting to see a lower volume of patients per day. I believe we should respect the requests of our team; however, there needs to be an honest conversation about how this may impact their salary moving forward. . .

INFECTION CONTROL

I believe there will be additional infection control mandates as the CDC further recognizes how to combat airborne contaminants like COVID-19. 

Currently, there are a variety of “air purifiers” & “air scrubbers” that utilize certain technology to reduce the bacterial/viral load in the air. 

Will this become standard? What’s the effectivity of these devices? I believe more information will come out in the following months.

PRICING

Dentists now incur more expenses than ever as we are obligated to provide expensive PPE to keep our team safe. 

Do we eat the expenses? Do we include PPE in our pricing to patients? This is a hard one to predict. I believe some combination of both will be done.

TEAM

With an expected reduction in patient volume, we should assume that some changes need to be made with our team dynamic. 

I believe that we may have to alternate days for team members or possibly cut hours so that we can keep our office productive. Ideally, I would hope that we can remain as productive as before but this is yet to be seen.

PERCEPTION

How will the public perceive dental offices. Will patients be more timid to enter a dental space. 

I believe the hardest obstacle to overcome will be to educate our communities about the safety of our dental offices. This can be done with public education on social media forums like YouTube, Instagram & Tik Tok.

PATIENT RELATIONSHIPS

In the foreseeable future I don’t imagine a world where we are giving our patients’ hugs or shaking hands. 

As of now, we are expected to wear masks and shields that cover our facial expressions & reduce the formalities that make our community of patients feel happy while receiving treatment. 

How do we connect with people now? 

Once again, video communication through social media platforms will be more important than ever to represent who you are & what you do.

INSURANCE

Another challenging prediction. . . The United States has an alarming number of unemployed citizens. People are losing their insurance benefits every single day. 

How do they plan on paying for essential dental treatment. Will payment plans become more of a standard in dentistry or not. What do you guys think?

CORPORATE DENTISTRY

 I believe this pandemic helps large corporate dental offices as they have the ability to combat expenses more effectively then a private office. 

These companies understand profit/loss & private practice owners need to understand the business of dentistry more than ever.

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