The Australian dental industry is a fast-growing sector with future development and growth underway. It is dependent on imported dental equipment and there is also a huge demand for high-quality dental products. The country is focusing on constantly growing its healthcare industry. This takes us to the question of how competitive is the dental industry in Australia.

Read on to learn the insights and more about the dental industry in Australia, its present status, future growth, and other dental statistics and data. Medfuture helps connect qualified and skilled dentists with dental health organisations to support the growth of the dental industry in Australia.

The dental industry in Australia

The Australian dental industry is looking for innovative dental products as a means of enhancing dental services provided to the people. The dental market in Australia is mature, price sensitive, and competitive. It is reported that more than 85% of healthcare products are imported, which means that the Australian healthcare sector greatly relies on imports. Most of the dental instruments and consumables used in the Australian dental industry are imported, with a mere 3% being local products.

Medicare is a healthcare scheme that is fully-funded by the Australian government. However, the dental services industry in Australia is mostly funded by private organisations when compared to other health services in the country. Patients have to pay for their dental checkups, appointments, and other dental procedures. Some of them may use private health insurance schemes to subsidise the cost. Those with private health insurance typically visit the dentist regularly and undergo expensive dental procedures. Therefore, about 50% of Australians have a certain level of private health insurance cover, especially for dental expenses.

A steady growth has been forecasted in the Australian dental services industry as the demand for oral health services increases due to growing and ageing of the population, consumer expectation, increased tooth retention, and changing dental service provision. There is a high demand for dental technology services related to restorative and preventative procedures, cosmetic procedures, and products that keep the teeth of the ageing population natural for longer.

Children are more likely to visit dentists that adults. Following are some statistics related to the type of services and procedures that people require from dentists:

33.5% of patients visiting dentists do so for preventative and diagnostic services

23% of patients visiting dentists do so for restorative services

14% of patients visiting dentists do so for prosthodontics

29.5% of patients visiting dentists do so for other specialist dentistry services

Market size

Here are some statistics related to the spread out of dentists in Australia:

There are approximately 16,500 dentists in the country

84% of dentists are employed in private practices. 50% of them work in group private practices while 25% work in solo private practices

6% of dentists are employed in private clinics

About 10% of dentists are specialists, out of which the largest group representing 36% of it are orthodontists

The following is the overall market size of the dental services industry in Australia:

Revenue as at 2023 $10.9 billion

Revenue up by 0.1% between the periods from 2018 to 2023

Total number of employees in the sector is 56,810, which is up by 2.4% between the periods from 2018 to 2023

Total number of businesses is 19,119, which is up by 5.0% between the periods from 2018 to 2023

Australia dental industry analysis

Australia’s growing and ageing population has been supporting and contributing towards the dental services industry over the past decade. The dental industry in Australia is mostly privately-funded, which has led to many people undergoing expensive dental procedures that are covered by their private health insurance.

Between the periods of 2021 and 2022, private health insurance companies have paid AU$2.9 billion in dental benefits for AU$44.8 million out-of-hospital dental health services. A marginal gain in health insurance membership amounts has assisted demand growth.

Industry statistics and trends

Most of the dental professionals in Australia are general dental practitioners. They primarily provide preventative and diagnostic dental health services. The dental sector also includes dental practitioners providing specialist dental care services.  

Competition in the dental industry is mainly based on location, reputation, amount charged, the variety of services provided, and private health insurer connections. The rise of corporate dentistry in Australia is slowly changing the competitiveness of the dental industry.

Dental services in Australia

Market size

The dental industry revenue in Australia has declined at a CAGR of 0.1% over the last 5 years, reaching an estimated AU$10.9 billion in 2023.

The COVID 19 pandemic had a huge impact on the dental industry in Australia, which lead to significant challenges. After the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, the government enforced three levels of restrictions to the dental industry only allowing dental practitioners to conduct emergency surgeries to temporarily stabilise major dental issues and prevent hospitalisation.

In the past few years, the dental industry in Australia has experienced strong growth in terms of employment number and industry enterprise, reflecting an inflow of dental practitioners and associated practitioners. The industry has paid AU$2.8 billion in wages between the periods 2018 and 2023.

Industry outlook (2023-2028)

The dental industry market size is projected to grow over the next five years, the period from 2023 to 2028. The underlying growth drivers that support the dental industry growth are the growing and ageing population and the rising disposable incomes.

Challenges in the Australia dental industry

The Australian dental industry is continuously changing primarily due to preferred service provider arrangements with health funds, increasing corporatisation, and the oversupply of dental graduates.

The following are the biggest challenges in the dental industry in Australia:

Growth: 77% of dentists are of the view that their dental practice is not functioning at its peak level. 62% of dental practitioners think that a growth plan is essential. However, only 41% of dental practitioners actually have a growth plan.

Oversupply of dental practitioners and dental graduates and increased competition: The oversupply of dentists and dental graduates has led to an increased competition an finding a competitive advantage over each other.

Succession planning: 68% of dental practitioners don’t seem to be having a succession plan. They are of the view that management succession is more important than ownership succession.

Australia dental devices market

Prosthodontics segment of the Australia dental devices industry is expected to show significant growth over the coming years. Prosthodontics focuses on dental prostheses and the industry shows growth due to an increased demand for dental prosthesis across Australia and the rising government benefits. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that the Australian government has paid AU$184,092 for 1371 prosthodontics services across the country. This averages to AU$134 in benefits, AU$260 in denture parts, and US$80 on dental maintenance per service. Therefore, a rise in government-paid benefits for prosthodontics treatment will directly lead to an increase of demand for prosthodontics devices while driving the growth of this sector.

The following are some statistics related to Australian government paid benefits in prosthodontics service for 2021.

Denture and denture components: 74.86

Denture repairs: 40.91

Denture maintenance: 1.22

Other prosthodontics services: 4.7

Look to Medfuture as we play a vital role in ensuring that highly qualified dentists are part of the dental services industry in Australia. The Medfuture job board is constantly updated with the latest dentistry jobs and other healthcare job roles in Australia.