Why 30% of Americans haven't been to the dentist since before the pandemic

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans haven’t been to the dentist since before the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to a new survey from invisible aligners company Byte.com.

The sample size of that survey was small, but several dentists USA TODAY spoke with said that figure wouldn’t surprise them.

Even before the pandemic provided people with a reason to avoid the dentist, some Americans delayed care for years.

“A lot of the patients that come to Aspen Dental haven’t been to the dentist in about 10 years or more,” said Dr. Arwinder Judge, chief clinical officer for the nationwide dental chain.

The top reasons for delaying dental visits, according to the Byte survey are:

  • Cost: Respondents said it’s too expensive - 59%

  • Fear: Being too anxious or afraid of the dentist - 44%

  • Avoidance: Just don’t want to go - 39%

  • Procedure: Worried about needing a procedure. 34%

  • Coverage: Not having dental insurance. 33%

As families have been hit this year with rising costs for groceries and other necessities due to high inflation, many have let dental visits slide further down the do-to list because of the out-of-pocket costs incurred with or without insurance.

But the further out people push that first return visit, the scarier the procedures and total bill could become, said Dr. Sodabeh Etminan, dental director at the University of Illinois’ Mile Square Health Center, a network of health centers in the Chicago area.

“We're seeing a lot of bigger cavities because patients weren't coming in to get them treated when they were smaller,” Etminan said.

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Why is dental work so expensive?

Cost is the No. 1 deterrent for going to the dentist because even those with dental insurance end up paying for much of their care out-of-pocket.

The Urban Institute surveyed average annual dental spending from 2015 to 2018 and found the annual cost for adults slowly increases with age from $198 for those ages 20 to 29 to $532 for those ages 70 to 75.

And costs have only gone up since the start of the pandemic due to the labor shortages and inflation that has impacted every other industry, said Adam Powell, a health care economist and president of consulting firm Payer+Provider Syndicate.

“In general, there's been tremendous medical inflation that's been seen over the past year,” he said.

In fact, the price of dental services had the largest monthly change “ever recorded” when the cost went up 1.9% in June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which began tracking such numbers in 1995. And those prices rose 9.1% from a year earlier, making it the largest 12-month increase since 1981, according to the consumer price index.