Dental Expenditures are a bargain… for now.
The overall
average for personal healthcare has risen much faster than the average for all
consumer items, nearly quadrupling in the past 25 years. Whereas per capita spending dental costs have
remained flat.[1]
Coupled with
the effects of inflation and population growth the general shift from
institutional care spending toward professional services has created little to
no increase in ones dental costs. Medical care is increasingly delivered in
outpatient care settings, often in physician offices or surgical care centers,
which can be seen in the above diagram crossing of the real spending trends for
institutional care and professional services that occurred in about 2000.
Unlike other professional services, dentistry has not gained from the shift
toward outpatient/professional services, having remained flat in real per
capita spending for the past 25 years. Thus, while prices for dental services
have grown generally as fast as the average for all personal healthcare
services, dentistry has neither lost nor gained real ground
in per capita use.[2]
Most dental
coverage in the United States is obtained through employer-offered plans, and
basic Medicare does not include such benefits. Seniors’ spending on dental care
is, therefore, more sensitive to income than spending by younger age groups. Whether dentistry will continue to maintain
its relative position in per capita utilization depends, at least in part, on
how the baby boom demographics will impact dental care demand in the next two
decades.[3]
Novy Scheinfeld, DDS, PC
290 Carpenter Drive, 200A
Atlanta (Sandy Springs), GA 30328
404-256-3620
info@rightsmilecenter.com
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