We caught up with Nigel Jones, sales and marketing director at Practice Plan, who looks back over 2022 and reveals where he sees dentistry heading next year.
How would you summarise 2022 for the dental profession?
I think it’s been going through the most amazing amount of change that I’ve ever seen during the course of my career. I’ve spent many years working with the dental profession and I can’t remember a period of time where there’s been this amount of change and uncertainty.
Obviously, a lot of that is down to the pandemic and the turbulence we experienced that led up to the beginning of this year.
But some of the issues are longer term and are really coming to a head around now too. I think it’s been a fascinating year and the danger with me saying that is I’m trivialising some of the immense pressure people have been under right the way through the profession, as well as patients.
I think there’s been some good things and some bad things, and overall I retain a lot of optimism for the future of dentistry. This may sound like I’m swimming against the tide because there is a lot of doom and gloom. But I actually do feel quite positive about the future.
Looking forward, why do you have such a positive outlook for dentistry?
The main thing for me that has characterised this year from a dental perspective is the imbalance in the supply of dentistry and the demand. That creates a whole host of challenges and issues.
But I think it also puts them in a position of strength to be able to shape their practices in a particular way. As a very specific example, you hear more and more reports of dentists setting up private squat practices and filling their books in a matter of weeks.
Not too long ago, that would have seemed like a pipe dream. But now, it’s happening all the time. I think this demonstrates that dentistry is in a position of strength.
Watch the full interview above.
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