Is your dentist his own boss? As the federal government prepares to offer more free care to children, large publicly traded corporations are buying up Canadian-based dental practices at breakneck speed.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
The largest of them, Toronto-based dentalcorp, has 526 clinics across the country and claims to have 4.5 million annual patient visits. Its turnover is 1.3 billion dollars.
But the competition has been blowing its back since the merger this summer of the second and third players in the industry (123dentist of Vancouver and Altima Dental of Toronto). In March, before their merger, Desjardins estimated their respective turnovers at 270 million and 120 million. Groupe Lapointe from Quebec is one of those who are now part of this group.
The merger prompted Desjardins analysts Gary Ho, Chi Le and Justin Cal to say earlier this year that the recent merger confirms the “consolidation trend” of dental practices in Canada. This is also the case in the United States.
They also point out that “in essence, the dental care market is resilient to recessions”.
At stake: conquering the Canadian dentistry market, which is worth $18 billion, according to Desjardins, and which could grow with the national dental care program announced by the New Democrats and the Liberals.
The opinion of the Order of Dentists
In an interview, the Dr Guy Lafrance, president of the Order of Dentists of Quebec, explains that his organization has been lobbying the Quebec government for 20 years to ensure that dentists, as is the case for pharmacists, are the only ones who can own cabinets.
Currently, anyone can own a dental clinic. It is enough, explains the Dr Lafrance, that a dentist be in place since he is the only authorized custodian of patient records.
Why does the College consider it important that dentists be owners?
“To ensure the sustainability, the management” of the practices and “so that the patient knows who owns the practice. Currently, it may belong to a company and the patient will not know it, ”replies the Dr France.
Regardless of the business model of dentists, in solo practice, in groups or within large corporations, it is essential, continues the Dr Lafrance, that “our dentists retain their professional independence to put the interests of the patient at the center of their concerns”.
In a note made for IRIS entitled Finance takes on dental care, researchers Colin Pratte and Bertrand Schepper point out that “the current conditions of dental practice in Canada may explain the interest of certain financial players in this sector. Due to the significant technological innovations in dental practice, the capital required to open a dental practice for graduate dentists is higher than it was before”.
Despite today’s proliferation of acquisitions, large firms still own less than 3% of practices in the country, according to the report.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Colin Pratte, co-author of Finance takes on dental care
But “in a context where dental care will soon be universally covered, the opportunity is good to broaden the reflection on the question of the form that this public dental insurance will take, and thus to question the risks associated with the financialization of dentistry in the country,” reads the IRIS text.
Michelle Robichaud, director of public affairs at dentalcorp, said the company “partners with dentists and acquires established dental clinics” so they “can focus on providing excellent patient care.”
On behalf of 123Dentist, Georgia Mouka told The Press that according to the business model in place, “dentists often retain interests” in their practice and “have complete clinical and operational autonomy”.