On occasion, it is worth considering the impact people in any profession have on others. Policy makers typically hear about this impact in terms of dollars and cents, numbers of jobs, or unemployment rates. Policy presentation can be clinically impersonal, hiding the human stories behind numbers in pursuit of big picture objectivity. When considering the value of dentists, there is a lot left to learn beyond conventionally collected data.  

What We Count 

To be sure, dentists provide plenty of value to their local economies, and the American Dental Association (ADA) aims to estimate just how much. In Georgia alone, dental practices create over 30,000 jobs, and they support almost 43,000 more. In a state with around 5.3 million jobs at any given time, that means over 1% of Georgia’s workforce is supported by dentistry. Annual direct spending on dental care for 2022 was $4.6 billion, and indirect and induced spending totaled more than $8.8 billion. These numbers, all from 2022, have likely only grown in the interim.  

_{Data Source: Total Economic Impact and Total Number of Jobs Supported by Offices of Dentists, 2022 (XLSX) data report. American Dental Association Health Policy Institute. 2024.  Accessed July 22nd, 2024. https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dental-practice-research/economic-impact-of-dental-offices}  

These numbers sketch out the skeleton of a story that requires fleshing out through other means. Total jobs and total economic impact of dental offices are in part factors of the populations of their respective states. Places like Florida (22 million people / 61.5 dentists per 100,000) support more jobs than places like West Virginia (1.7 million people / 48.7 dentists per 100,000). To compare apples to apples, adjustments must be made to account for factors like population. One option is to consider measures of economic benefit on a per person or per provider basis. On a per dentist basis, economic impact ranges from $1.73 million in Hawaii to $3.48 million in North Dakota, with a national average of $2.36 million per dentist annually. Georgia sits slightly above the average. Regional variation in practice value on a per dentist basis warrants further study. A better understanding of factors holding practices back from achieving their full potential may yield new insights into policy levers that can enhance the practice of dentistry nationwide.  

Looking Beyond the Data 

ADA’s Health Policy Institute is quick to point out that these estimates do not account for the total value of dentistry to an economy. To begin to guess dentistry’s total value, one would have to imagine a world where there is no dentistry and compare that world to Georgia today. A world without dentistry would have lower productivity, people in pain find it hard to work, and it would certainly have fewer teeth. Health care costs would be higher, and outcomes would be worse for chronic problems linked to dental disease such as diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and others. The ADA’s annual analysis leaves out many of these factors by necessity.  

No collection of statistics can quantify the value of a dentist to a patient in need of treatment. Nobody likes to be in pain around the clock. American culture’s obsession with perfect teeth can create feelings of social awkwardness for those with slightly crooked smiles, and it can make life difficult for those with real dental issues. Dental care is healthcare, and as a result, its value is deeper than dollars and cents. It helps people to feel good and feel whole. Underneath the numbers quoted above is also a reminder that dentistry provides for many people’s livelihoods, enabling them to live their own healthy and fulfilling lives. While there are unanswered questions left to consider, a certain unquantifiable value of dentistry should also not be forgotten.