What To Consider As You Begin Your Practice

• Introduction
• Distribution of Private Practice Dentists
• Proportion of Private Practitioners by Age
• Building a Patient Base: Referral Sources
• A Dental Equipment Use Profile

Introduction

Did you know:

• The average age of a recent dental school graduate is 27 years.
• Of recent dental school graduates, 61 percent are male and 39 percent are female.
• New independent dentists report an average of 87.6 patient visits per week.

These are just a few of the statistics from the ADA Survey Center’s 2003 Survey of Dental Practice and the 2003 Survey of Dental Graduates. The information in these publications offers a great deal of assistance to new dentists beginning a practice. Included are statistics on topics such as sources of new patients, patient insurance coverage, time spent in the dental practice and types of equipment used in the practice. These resources can be obtained by calling the Survey Center, Ext. 2568 or by visiting www.ada.org/goto/surveyresearch.

This report on new practice considerations provides a few of the highlights of the Survey of Dental Practice that may be of interest to the new dentist. These highlights include the distribution of private practice dentists by employment status, the proportion of independent private practitioners by age, new-patient referral sources and an equipment use profile.

Note that the information on distribution of private practice dentists by employment status that follows is for all private practitioners. The rest of the Survey of Dental Practice information is representative of dentists who reported that they were in private practice as a primary occupation and had been in their current practice for at least one year.

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Distribution of Private Practice Dentists

The 2003 Survey of Dental Practice revealed that the majority (89.6 percent) of dentists in private practice (general practitioners and specialists) own their own practices, either as sole proprietors or as partners. The breakdown is as follows: 75.3 percent of dentists in private practice are sole proprietors; 14.3 percent are partners; 6.8 percent are employees; and 3.6 percent are independent contractors. Among new general practitioners—those who graduated from dental school less than 10 years ago—52.0 percent were sole proprietors, 17.6 percent were partners and 30.4 percent were nonowners.

Of the dentists in private practice, 64.3 percent practice solo, 20.4 percent work with one other dentist and 15.3 percent work with two or more dentists. Among new dentists, 40.8 percent work in a practice with no other dentists, 30.5 percent work with one other dentist and 26.7 percent work with two or more dentists.

Regarding the hours worked by dentists in private practice in 2002, 78.2 percent reported that they practice dentistry full time on a weekly basis (32 hours a week or more); 35.5 percent work 40 or more hours per week. Of new dentists in private practice in 2000, 85.9 percent practiced on a full-time basis.

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Proportion of Private Practitioners by Age

General practitioners. The mean age of general practitioners was 50.8 years in 2002. Of general practitioners, 55.2 percent were 40 to 54 years of age; 14.9 percent were younger than 40 years of age; and 29.9 percent were 55 years of age or older.

Specialists. The mean age of specialists in 2002 was 51.3 years. Of specialists, 49.3 percent were 40 to 54 years of age; 38.3 percent were 55 years of age or older; and 12.4 percent were younger than 40 years of age.

Both general practitioners and specialists. The 2001 overall age ratios for the nation’s private practitioners show that 5.8 percent were younger than 35 years of age, 30.3 percent were younger than 45 years of age and 18.4 percent were 60 years of age or older. Among new general practitioners in 1999, 60.0 percent were younger than 35 years old, 29.0 percent were between 35 and 39 years old and 11.0 percent were 40 years old or older.

Regardless of age, the mean percentage of time per week spent on dental procedures by both general dentists and specialists in 1999 was 29.8 percent on operative procedures; 16.1 percent, prosthodontic care; 11.0 percent, preventive care; 12.4 percent, diagnostic procedures; 7.9 percent, endodontic care; 5.5 percent, periodontic care; 6.7 percent, oral and maxillofacial surgery; 7.5 percent, orthodontic care; and 3.2 percent, general services.

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Building a Patient Base: Referral Sources

According to the 1999 Survey of Dental Practice, new dentists (both general dentists and specialists) have an average of 30.1 new patients per month. New patients are especially important to new dentists, who need to establish a patient base. Therefore, the reason a patient chooses to seek care at a new dental practice should be of great interest to new dentists.

Among new dentists, specialists tend to receive the largest percentage of new patient referrals from general dentists (56.8 percent), while general dentists tend to receive the largest percentage of new patient referrals from patients (55.7 percent). Because specialists aren’t nearly as concerned about referrals as general dentists, only the new patient referral sources for general practitioners are provided here.

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A Dental Equipment Use Profile

When establishing a private practice, the new dentist must equip his or her office with everything needed to provide a wide range of dental services. New dentists may wonder if every suggested piece of dental equipment is necessary to open a practice. To help answer this question, the 2000 Survey of Dental Practice asked its survey sample population about equipment use. The percentage of responding general practitioners using a particular piece of equipment follows.

• Composite light-curing unit, 99.0 percent
• Sterilizable (autoclavable) handpiece, 98.9 percent
• Ultrasonic or sonic scaling unit, 95.1 percent
• Automatic X-ray film processor, 83.6 percent
• High-speed air handpiece with fiber optics, 78.1 percent
• Biological indicator (spore test), 74.3 percent
• Nitrous oxide analgesic equipment, 58.9 percent
• Panoramic X-ray unit, 60.6 percent
• Scavenger system for nitrous oxide, 50.0 percent
• Electrosurgical unit, 49.4 percent
• Modular instrument delivery system (wall divider), 24.4 percent
• Amalgam separator, 23.9 percent
• Silver recovery unit, 24.3 percent
• Intraoral video camera, 43.6 percent
• Dental unit waterlines cleaning devices, 48.2 percent
• Professional bleaching products, 95.0 percent

The topics and statistics in this report on new practice considerations represent only a sample of the issues and concerns of the new dentist. Information on the number and use of computer systems in the dental practice, experiences in obtaining credit for opening a new practice and more appears in other survey center reports. Additional data on the dental practice are available from the ADA Survey Center.

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