Why should dentists invest in dental innovation?

With digital modifications in the field of dentistry, the possibilities have widened to earn great ROI from dental investment.

Digital technology has already been introduced to the dental practice. Their technical properties have often been studied, but it is unclear why some dentists adopt and use these techniques more than others – which are also an important aspect of investment in dentistry.

In the last few decades, digital technology has taken hold and is now playing an important role in the development of dentistry. Many processes in dental practice are changing.

Communication and information processing are increasingly computer-mediated, digital radiation and photography are becoming more common in diagnostics, and dental treatment is increasingly dependent on digital techniques in processes such as impression, treatment planning, and implant surgery. Some of these techniques are built into a dental practice, while others are relatively unknown to dentists.

In addition to dental innovation investment, technological advancements are affecting many areas of life, the so-called digital revolution. The future of digital in this term can be seen from two different perspectives. On the one hand, it can be seen as a promising source of progress in dental investment. On the one hand, it can be considered full of known and unknown risks, leading to critical questions of perceived progress. These views influence the behavior of technology – both for the users and developers, as well as the impact of innovation on their day-to-day operations.

Expert literature, expert opinion, and descriptive research on dental training regularly discuss the question of what digitization in dentistry means for current and future investors. However, most research on digital dental technology focuses on its technical characteristics or clinical outcomes. However, these alone do not guarantee that they will be widely accepted by the target audience. Successful innovation is strongly influenced by the dentist's attitude, expectations, work relationships and interests.

Here in this blog, we will thoroughly explain why dental investment is one of the most profitable investments right now and how investors, specially the dentists themselves can earn continuous profit from it.

However, there are many obstacles to the integration of dental practice. So, the other goal of this blog is to identify some of the integration challenges and provide a working solution.

Investing in Dental sector: The Growth and opportunities

So, what is a dental DSO?

Dental service organizations (DSOs) have evolved into the public tier as the lookout and revenue impressions grow, and continue to offer attractive opportunities for private investment and expansion.

The DSO model is gaining attention in the market because it brings significant benefits to patients, doctors and investors. The dental DSO companies provide dentists with better access to the economy of capital and economies of scale, making new technologies and best practices available to dentists.

This means less time is spent on administrative tasks and more time is spent treating the patient. This means better care for patients and higher interests for investors.

Today, DSO Space has at least dozens of private equity-backed, well-funded consolidators. Many of these platforms are looking to adopt rollup or integration strategies. In this strategy, platform practices acquire clinical assets for many small practices and DSOs acquire non-clinical assets for small target companies. This acquisition strategy allows DSOs to set up a much larger company that can take advantage of a much more efficient cost structure and implement a professional management structure.

Traditional private equity structures combine equity, debt management expertise, growth and efficiency to deliver a superior return on dental investment. Extensions are often important for this structure to work. And as competition in dentistry intensifies, dentists are graduating from dental school, often with personal debt over USD 300K – USD 400K.

High levels of debt often mean that a graduated dentist cannot open a clinic or can get an existing clinic from a retired dentist. In addition to the costly options of opening a clinic or purchasing an existing clinic, it is becoming more and more common for junior dentists to join an existing DSO-assisted clinic.

The next generation of dentists has shown that they prefer to manage their schedules more predictably than to deal with the (generally) day-to-day complexity of managing the dental office.

Investors have long been fascinated by the dental industry, primarily because of their isolated position as a commercial payment or cash-based business. Except for Medicaid-based DSO (which is certainly a viable business model), most dental practices have no Medicare reimbursement and Medicaid reimbursement is limited. This leads to the perception that non-Medicaid DSOs are better isolated from the political pen stroke of redemption rates. At the same time, the dental practice remains very fragmented.

How will digitization work for the current and future investment opportunities?

With so many other industries, technology has truly transformed the dental healthcare industry. Technological innovation has expanded treatment options and made dental treatment better. Many dentists use the latest dental technology to maintain today's competitive environment.

By knowing what is investment in dentistry or how to invest in the latest dental technology, you can increase efficiency and differentiate yourself from your local competitors. Technology can be a high initial investment, but when properly implemented, it can result in a large ROI for a dental practice.

Keeping new technologies up-to-date can automate manual processes and save valuable employee time. Technology makes dental practice work more efficiently and increases productivity. You can also gain a competitive advantage that will help you stand out in the community and ultimately attract new patients.

It's not just about being more efficient and catching up with the competition. In today's digital world, patients expect providers, including dentists, to keep up with the latest technologies in this area. From non-invasive procedures to flexible and convenient scheduling options, there are many ways in which technology can help improve the patient experience and increase patient retention in the process.

Dental Practice laws in different states

Dental corporate practices are regulated by the federal government and can be a challenge for DSOs seeking to expand their national presence. For example, some states allow non-dentists to own the dental office directly, while most other states require that the dental office be owned by a licensed dentist. Some states go a step further and require that such licensed dentists be licensed by the state dental committee where the clinic is located. The structures implemented to comply with these laws can be very complex and somewhat esoteric. As a result, growing DSOs may need to be familiar with the laws of almost every state to comply.

One of the solutions that some DSOs are looking at is playing with the lowest common denominator. In other words, such DSOs have chosen to comply with the most restrictive state laws. This approach may mean sacrificing the structural integrity of the arrangement or certain economics, but some DSOs say this is an efficient solution for rapid and compliant growth.

Alternatively, other DSOs may include a grouping process that groups similarly regulated states for structural considerations, or require individual state-to-state analysis and structuring, more differentiating. We take a structured approach. When deciding which approach to take, DSO needs to maintain a balance between perfect accuracy and lack of resources.

Some fundamental trends drive the adoption of digital innovations

Fortunately, for the past 5-10 years, there has been sufficient activity in the field of dentistry, fairly healthy practice, and most knowledgeable dentists are familiar with the basic regulatory status of most states.

Ongoing integration between private stakeholders:

Recently, a trend of integration has been observed among dental clinics, and previously the regional dental chain has expanded throughout the USA. Driven by private equity investments, chains are increasingly taking a longer-term strategic and commercial approach to dental care. The chain's ability to access funding, special operations and talent development is a key factor in accelerating the adoption of digital technology.

In addition, the clinic will further integrate along the value chain by opening or acquiring its lab, digitizing and integrating workflows to improve the speed and accuracy of communication between multiple entities while managing it. Through his recent involvement in transactions, the dentists have recognized the importance of powerful IT and digital capabilities. This is reflected in the scope of providing equity stories.

Enhance the quality of entry-level solutions:

In recent decades, the manufacture of dentures and instruments is often outsourced to low-wage countries. However, recent digital innovations allow even medium-sized laboratories and dental offices to achieve low cost and reasonable quality by manufacturing in-house with affordable entry-level hardware combined with high-quality software. In addition, the current COVID 19 pandemic has had a serious impact on the supply and transportation of dental products within and within the USA, which further facilitated the adoption of in-house CAD / CAM systems and made previous outsourcing decisions. We consider it a turning point to overturn.

Key partnerships between the dental sector and tech organizations empower further coordination with other programming through APIs and give the capacity to modify the digital work processes to address client issues. To support this trend, many previously closed solutions, such as CAD / CAM systems, have been opened, giving users more freedom to choose specific software or hardware.

Technological advancements:

Since the last decade, remarkable advances in computer technology and prosthesis manufacturing have disrupted the entire dental workflow, from patient diagnostics to prosthesis design, surgery planning and execution, and patient data exchange and storage. Not only are digital solutions more accessible, but they also deliver better, more controllable results in significantly reduced time. Treatments that used to take too long or could not be performed are now part of everyday life. With more comfortable and personalized treatment, overall patient satisfaction is greatly improved.

Another important development in AI and machine learning is relied upon to assume an inexorably significant part in automating the plan and production of perplexing dental applications and reclamations.

Changes in patient preferences and treatment methodology:

While dentists have long benefited from loyal patients, patient demand follows with greater transparency in pricing and quality of treatment and increased aesthetic and orthodontic treatment options. While it was common to visit a dentist in multiple sessions over days or weeks to obtain an implant, today's dentists can seamlessly transfer information with digital imaging and planning solutions. Patients can be diagnosed, planned, and treated in one or two sessions.

New standards and treatment guidelines:

In recent years, serious guidelines of the states have recommended the use of digitized solutions to obtain accurate results or production quality. When it comes to patient management, stricter documentation and management requirements under the GDPR require dentists and laboratories to digitize their entire workflow and information flow to ensure compliance. Obviously, as technology advances, so do the rules and regulations of digital dentistry. This impacts both dental DSO companies and practitioners as the process of manufacturing and using equipment approval and verification becomes more stringent, making it impossible to comply with analogue-only methods.

Introducing digital solutions offers quantifiable benefits:

Digital dentistry is not just a buzzword. Digitization of dental workflows offers measurable benefits in terms of quality, time savings and labor cost savings.

Looking at premium dental chains and labs, digital solutions are much more prevalent and prominently communicated to convey a high level of quality awareness and a high degree of innovation. Ultimately, with comfortable, high-quality treatment and more consistent and controllable production results, both laboratories and dentists can differentiate themselves from employees and patients in demanding markets and provide first-class service.

By digitizing and automating guide tasks through dental innovation investment, you could lessen exertions charges in conventional dental laboratories via way of means of as much as 30%. In terms of efficiency, digital solutions can significantly reduce production and processing times, and technologies such as CAD / CAM systems can free up to 50% of capacity.

Similar time and cost savings can be achieved with management and diagnostic tasks, involving the patient in the treatment process, which is one of the most important factors in improving communication with the dentist and gaining patient loyalty. Free up time to let. In addition, the reduced administrative burden makes employers of digital and advanced dental clinics more attractive than traditional competitors.

Top 5 Reasons to Invest in dental sector in the coming years

If dentists can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on clinical tasks, they can improve the quality of patient care and benefit investors.

• The dental industry has historically been isolated from market volatility and global crises. Dental investments offer unique diversification benefits as the industry is resilient in times of recession and global crises such as the COVID 19 pandemic. According to the data, the tendency to seek dental treatment for adults is only affected if wealth is reduced by more than 50%. The data show that dental insurance claims (and therefore dental income) increase significantly during a recession. This surge occurs when people rush to serve in anticipation of a disruption in coverage.
• Private equity is enthusiastic about investing in corporate dentistry and for good reason. As the dental industry continues to integrate into multi-site practices and DSOs, investors are aware of the economies of scale and profitability that corporate governance can bring to a single practice. There is a gradual but significant move towards a merger and acquisition environment where individual dental clinics are moving to the DSO model. Dentists and investors alike know that the resources, technologies, and marketing provided by DSOs often drive exponential growth. Trends show that investor capital is flowing into dentistry, and forecasts predict continued growth, innovation and integration of the industry.
• More and more dentists are participating in DSO. In 2017, 7.4% of all dentists belonged to DSO. That number rose to 10.4% in 2020 and increased by 40%. In addition to wanting more work-life balance, the increased student loan burden is the main reason that only one in four dentists under the age of 35 was practicing alone in 2019. The reason is. According to the General Dental Academy, the average cost of dental education has doubled since 2000, and the average dental school graduate has a student loan of USD 290K. This debt burden limits the ability of young dentists to access the capital needed to invest in a single practice.
• The dental investment capital that flows into the dental industry fosters a culture of innovation. From 3D dental printing to artificial intelligence to laser surgery, within the DSO model, dental practice is a new technology and innovative treatment that can attract patients, improve their health and ultimately bring good benefits. There are resources and support for implementation. Where there is the capital, there is competition, where there is competition, there is innovation. In addition, trends such as increasing demand for non-traditional services such as cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, and cosmetic injections will continue to evolve, grow, and prosper the dental industry and profession.
• Alternative investment strategies, such as Operation Dental's Private Placement Initiative, allow dentists to stay in control and participate in corporate operations. Private placement loans allow a company to sell its shares privately to a particular group of investors rather than publicly. As the company can remain private, dentists can be more reassured that their culture of practice and clinical autonomy will remain true.

To learn more about the Dental Innovation Fund, reach out to us at contact@dentalinnovation.fund or visit our website https://dentalinnovation.fund/