Practice Location Characteristics of Non-Traditional Dental Practices

Current and future dental school graduates are increasingly likely to choose a non-traditional dental practice-a group practice managed by a dental service organization or a corporate practice with employed dentists-for their initial practice experience. In addition, the growth of non-traditional practices, which are located primarily in major urban areas, could accelerate the movement of dentists to those areas and contribute to geographic disparities in the distribution of dental services. To help the profession understand the implications of these developments, the aim of this study was to compare the location characteristics of non-traditional practices and traditional dental practices. After identifying non-traditional practices across the United States, the authors located those practices and traditional dental practices geographically by zip code. Non-traditional dental practices were found to represent about 3.1% of all dental practices, but they had a greater impact on the marketplace with almost twice the average number of staff and annual revenue. Virtually all non-traditional dental practices were located in zip codes that also had a traditional dental practice. Zip codes with non-traditional practices had significant differences from zip codes with only a traditional dental practice: the populations in areas with non-traditional practices had higher income levels and higher education and were slightly younger and proportionally more Hispanic; those practices also had a much higher likelihood of being located in a major metropolitan area. Dental educators and leaders need to understand the impact of these trends in the practice environment in order to both prepare graduates for practice and make decisions about planning for the workforce of the future.