Last week we shared some of the major learns we made during 2016. This week, let us be a little bold and give a few of our predictions for the dental industry in 2017. Here are the changes we think the industry will undergo this year:

• Automation will become far more prevalent

Whether in inbound marketing (HubSpot, Buffer, etc.), e-commerce (Amazon, eBay, etc.), or industry (manufacturing, assembly lines, etc.), automation has been ubiquitous in numerous industries for years. We believe this year, the dental industry will take the next big step in implementing automation in its processes and systems.

• Processes and systems will become significantly more sophisticated

If the industry begins to adopt services and softwares that are highly automation-driven, naturally, its processes and systems will benefit and become more sophisticated. This means greater efficiency, lower overhead and easier budget management for practices and distributors.

• Full cost and price transparency will become obligatory for distributors

With real-time pricing serving as the norm in most industries, cost visibility is finally where it should be...except for in the dental industry, that is. This has long been an issue for practices, so much so that most have simply accepted it by now.

With the adoption of automation and the enhancement of other processes and systems, we believe distributors will be forced to cater to the long-standing demand for full cost visibility and price transparency, which will in turn, benefit them as well - especially more proactive, early adopters.

• Dentists and their staffs will regain control of their inventory

If the aforementioned predictions manifest themselves this year, we believe that they will result in a monumental, long-overdue shift of control, from distributors and manufacturers, to dentists and their staffs.

Long have the industry’s more outdated processes and systems like inventory management allowed distributors to be lax on transparency. We think 2017 will prove itself ripe with opportunity for dental software companies to help change this for good.

After breaking down our findings from 2016, there is no doubt in our minds that the dental industry will undergo substantial positive change in 2017. In conjunction with these findings, we assert that the practices and distributors that adopt automation and other more sophisticated methods of practice management, will be the ones who prosper most.