According to the American Dental Association, dental care spending is projected to increase at an average annual rate of 5% through 2021.

Total health spending is projected to grow at a slightly higher 5.7% annually or 0.9% point faster than the expected growth in the gross domestic product (GDP).

The growth rate accelerates in 2014 with expanded coverage under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

However, the ACA will add just 0.1% point to overall and dental spending through 2020, with aging baby boomers seen as a greater contributor to spending growth.

This year alone, over 4 million Americans will turn 65.

Dentistry’s share of all personal healthcare spending has slipped in the past 25 years by about one percentage point to 5.1% in 2007; this trend is expected to continue through the year 2018, the latest year for which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has made projections, to about 4.4%. (Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services).

But even with the dip in healthcare spending and factoring out the projected impact of the Affordable Care Act, steady gains in dental healthcare spending is projected through this decade.

The dental share of total health expenditures is projected at 3.7% in 2011 and 2021 with or without the Affordable Care Act expansions.

The ADA further projects that the annual dental services growth rate throughout this decade is slightly higher when the projections include ACA impacts.

Dental spending is projected to increase by 5.4% in 2015 over the previous year when the ACA is included and 4.4% without the ACA. The annual growth rate in dental spending accelerates after 2013 to as high as 6.6% in 2019 with the ACA and 6.4% without the ACA.

Do you think the aging boomer demographic will increase growth in the dental sector, or do you see other factors negatively influencing dental spending growth in the near future?

To read more see: Dental spending growth projected through 2021