Who lives in Australia and how they access dental care is set to undergo significant change by 2030. What must dentists do to ensure the profession remains relevant and profitable into the future? By Angela Tufvesson
Who lives in Australia and how they access dental care is set to undergo significant change by 2030. What must dentists do to ensure the profession remains relevant and profitable into the future? By Angela TufvessonBy 2030, Australia’s population is set to exceed 30 million, and one in five people will be aged over 60. University graduates will jump from one in four to eventually number one in two, but wealth will be distributed less equally.
So, what does this mean for the future of dentistry? Are practices likely to have a larger, more affluent client base? Will the growing older cohort add to demand for dental services? And what of the impact of technological development and continued oversupply of dental graduates on the profession?
Mature age
Much has been written about Australia’s ageing population, and the 2016 census reveals the trend is set to continue. By 2030, as many Australians will be aged over 60 as under 20 and the older cohort will be more active than ever, says Mark McCrindle, head of social research firm McCrindle.
“Someone in their mid-60s can expect to live into their late 80s, and not only are there more people in the older age category but they are more active in those older years,” he says. “People are moving into aged care support later in life, people are independent longer and they are active as consumers later.”
Dr Joanna Gray, a coach and trainer from dental practice consultancy Momentum Management, says this means demand for quality dental care and cosmetic dentistry later in life will increase. Crucially, she says, practices that work with clients to develop clinical and financial plans for the future are well-placed to retain and benefit from older clientele.
“One of the big opportunities for dental practices is what I call retirement planning for the teeth,” she says. “And it’s not just the teeth—it’s the financial side of it as well. Smart practices have started to talk to their roughly 60-year-old patients about how they want their teeth to be when they’re older and looked at how to plan for that now, clinically and financially.”
Haves and have-nots
Most Australians fancy themselves as middle-class folk on average incomes, but the reality is wealth inequality is on the rise. Our Gini coefficient—a global measure of income spread—is now at its highest level ever, and the wealthiest 20 per cent of Australians own 71 times that of the poorest 20 per cent.
“With the oversupply of dentists in Australia you will see a push-down in wages and the reality is that makes it a more competitive market.”—Dr Hugo Sachs, president, ADA
“We’ve got a rising standard of living, full-time annual earnings are around $80,000 and net wealth is higher than ever,” says McCrindle. “But at the same time, we have a rising cost of living, rising utility bills and a bigger gap between the wealth categories. There’s a fragmentation of spend categories now and into the future compared with what we’ve seen in the past.”
Dr Hugo Sachs, president of the Australian Dental Association, says in the dental industry this phenomenon is best illustrated using a model of thirds. “There are many surveys that show us that a third of people have a regular dental check-up every two to three years, a third only turn up for required needs and there is another third that will never turn up,” he says.
Encouraging those who never go to the dentist to make an appointment for required care and those who only show up for required care to have a regular check-up would help to fill dentists’ appointment books, but Dr Gray says growing wealth inequality will likely prohibit a significant proportion of the population from accessing private dental care.
“The problem that we’ve got in Australia is there’s still a significant portion of the population that isn’t going to private practices,” she says. “Some are managing to get into the public system but some aren’t seeing dentists at all.”
And for patients who have private health insurance, cost of living pressures mean many may continue to prefer to attend practices where fees are fully covered by their health insurer. “The dental population is being segmented into a high-end, full-fee service for wealthier people, while the majority of people are happy to go to a health fund clinic where they pay nothing or next to nothing,” says Dr Phillip Palmer, chairman of dental practice management company Prime Practice.
Too many cooks
Despite Australia’s growing population—and even if dental practices are able to attract older clientele with the means to access the private system—an oversupply of dentists means many practices will continue to struggle and university graduates face increasing competition for jobs.
“A lot of the skills that I have, in 20 years’ time, those skills will be redundant and you’ll find computerisation has come to the fore.”—Dr Hugo Sachs, president, ADA
“In terms of the number of eligible patients, the type of patients who are going to go to a private practice, we’re probably at saturation point and on the verge of being oversupplied with dentists,” says Dr Gray. “And the current market is absolutely saturated in most places with dental practices. A lot of practices are opening up that are surprisingly quiet.”
Dr Sachs says Australia graduates approximately 1,200 new dentists each year but only about 550 dentists retire in the same period. “There is pretty stiff competition for jobs out there,” he says. “We have evidence of young graduates not obtaining full-time employment, or to gain full-time employment they need two or three jobs. With the oversupply of dentists in Australia you will see a push-down in wages and the reality is that makes it a more competitive market.”
Service and technology matter
Thankfully, however, many industry commentators agree the quality of service provided by dentists will continue to be the main determinant of success for both salaried employees and practice owners, especially given the future impact of technology.
A report published this year by The Foundation for Young Australians predicts that by 2030 there will be a reduction in the need for workers to complete routine, manual tasks and an increase in the time workers spend focusing on people and gaining value from technology.
“In order to keep a recurring practice stream of check-ups and cleans, dentists need to add value rather than lose the patient to a free clinic,” says Dr Palmer. “It’s going to have to be on a service and communication level. I don’t believe dentists have to add value from extra services but on the way their services are given.”
Indeed, Dr Sachs says dentists must keep up with changes in technology or risk falling victim to outdated skill sets. “The whole of dentistry is becoming revolutionised in the way in which it’s provided. A lot of the skills that I have, in 20 years’ time, will be redundant and you’ll find computerisation has come to the fore.”
There’s Dentist, & then there’s the People who are dentist who shouldn’t be.
I’m talking about the quality of 1 Dentist vs any other.
Like doctors or any profession that is licenced to make “professional” opinions regarding any living thing or profession, relating to the safety of said things. They all to often get Passed regardless of weather or not they can perform all duties that call for a Qualification!
I can say from experience that I was passed for Senior First Aid, a Cert III & IV in Small Business Management & Business Sales when I knew I didn’t have the necessary skills. It was apart of my course with the Australian Institute of Fitness to become a personal trainer with a Cert III & IV in Fitness & Health.
I learned enough to be able to train people but was more so from my personal gym training experience. The Institute was @ the time the leading place in Australia for sports education according to the goverment who are still claiming its a high demand skill in shortage. I would not have been able to manage a business or Administer first aid . I I received a certificate for Vocational studies and didn’t even understand what it was at the time!
We need to make sure people can perform what we are qualified to do, not just pass people for the money each Institute receives for the scaled “training”.
I did my extensive first aid course in 15 mins with 20 other people crowded around trying to see. Had no practice on a dummy or anything. I was a bit annoyed that a training institution would rush a 3 day course in 15 mins with Automatic passes to make it up to us? That wouldn’t have helped if any of us had ever tryed to administer first aid incorrectly. It’s reasons like this that I keep getting morally wrong advice and lies about my dental care. I can’t afford Dentist anymore & I’ve always been payed minimum wages with promises of advancement and thats just not how it works anymore. Doesn’t matter what degree I get as I’m now middle age & after being layed off my job whilst having 2 torn tendons from a work injury during covid. (That’s what Australian Life is now unfortunately) But any way during a pretty tough time already, I was attacked from behind & left for dead with my skull fractured in 3 places & heavy bleeding and swelling on my brain . Since then getting any decent medical care is rare if not too difficult to manage. The hospital is more concerned with liability & will even withhold vital information or lock hospital records for the wrong reason. It’s surprisingly a common occurrence and I’m over the unprofessional lack of care anymore.
I have a Dentist who can not even perform a simple extraction. She will call 1 procedure difficult whilst most Dentist will say its a simple thing. She didn’t try very hard to extract a tooth that probably didn’t even need extracting.
I was scared for the first time @ the Dentist I think. She gave up and decided to hack at the tooth with a saw that burn my gums and made the most horrible smell like burnt hair but different. I was in soo much pain from it and ive been warned that I may need to go to the city if pain still persists 2 days after. It’s the day after and something feels wrong … I woke up with sweat all over me and my whole mouth aches . It’s something that people shouldn’t be forced to deal with as dental pain is no joke & i reckon I’m pretty experienced with pain to know the difference between bearable & then pain that cripples you..makes you throw up and takes a toll on your body even.
Stop worrying about your profits when some people should be payed to go through the ordeals some hack dentists do.
I pretty much picked up that only ⅓ of Australian people can even afford your services. You are not medical practitioners as you couldn’t care less about “everyone’s oral health” only the people who can afford it ..