What's Driving Change in Orthodontics

The field of orthodontics is changing, but what force is behind that change? And what are the prevailing trends that will matter over the years to come? These questions were on the mind of orthodontists who attended the AAO 2017 Annual Session in San Diego. Chris Bentson, a partner at Bentson Copple & Associates, an orthodontic consulting firm, offers his insights in this clip.

Interview Transcript (Modified for Readability)

“The biggest force changing the shape of orthodontics, in my opinion, would be the consolidation that’s happening not only across the specialty but also dentistry in the main, which really means we’re having groups come in that can manage, hire, establish employee relationships with doctors, market to the community, provide back-end office services and let the doctors do what they know how to do — and that’s diagnose and treat cases.

This started in dentistry at an accelerated pace. It’s ahead of the specialty right now. There’s a lot of noise around consolidation, and I think as we go forward over the next five to ten years we’ll see up to half or more of orthodontists in the country being employee doctors.

I’m agnostic as to whether consolidation is good or bad. It just is. And there’s no stopping it. There’s been some movements in dentistry or the specialty of orthodontics in practice modality ways that have come and gone. I don’t believe this is going to go away. I think it’s a business reality that we need to embrace. It expands opportunity for the consumer, I think. It therefore will grow the orthodontic market. And it gives millennial doctors who really want this employment relationship a great opportunity, as well as older doctors who want to stop fighting for the phone to ring to sell to a DSO, but continue to work for them.

It’s not good or bad. It just is. And it expands the opportunities for consumers and doctors.”

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