What happened to the doubling of standard of living that drove dental demand for fifty years?
The pattern that fueled dental demand growth from the post-WWII era into the early 2000s has effectively ended. Across most of the postwar period, average standard of living roughly doubled, which translated into rising demand for everything from durable goods to discretionary services including basic and advanced dental procedures. That doubling was historically unusual. The combination of automation, productivity gains, knowledge-work outsourcing, and the structural shifts in the global labor market has compressed wage growth for the broad middle class even as overall GDP and corporate profits keep climbing. The result: record productivity per employee with millions of workers who effectively no longer have an economic place that supports rising discretionary spending. For dental practices serving the broad middle, the reality is that the customer base that powered fifty years of demand expansion is no longer growing in real spending capacity. Recognizing the change is the first step to repositioning. Practices waiting for the broad middle to return to historical growth patterns are waiting for something that is not coming back.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.
