How do falling household incomes affect a dental practice? More than most dentists admit. Most practices are fed by middle class patients, and on an inflation-adjusted basis the average household income is, at best, about where it sat in the early 1970s. By some measures it is lower. The only reason families kept pace at all is that two people are working now instead of one. So the patient sitting in your chair has less real discretionary money than their parents had at the same age, even with both spouses earning. Pile the shrinking insurance benefit on top of that and [...]