Within the next handful of years, patients will have new expectations in terms of convenience and technology when they walk into their dentist’s office. [Becker's Dental & DSO Review]

Patients will want more individualized and tailored treatment plans and want the practice to calculate any co-payments, deductibles and plan maximums. 

Some dentists are also preparing for the possibility of insurance providers not raising reimbursement rates to keep up with inflation, which may lead patients to only go to the dentist for emergency care.

These eight dentists and dental leaders recently connected with Becker’s to give their predictions on how patient expectations will be different in five years compared to today.

Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.

Question: How do you think patient expectations will change in the next five years?

Thomas Allen, DDS. Dentist at Old Farm Dental (Millcreek, Utah): In the next five years, I see their expectations still being the same but with more concerns about the long-term effects of the treatment they receive and also concerns as to the effect on their quality of life that their treatment decisions will have.

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