Dentist offices tend to be stable businesses that stick around for decades, unlike restaurants that open and close frequently. This makes them the perfect barometer for gauging the country's recovery from the shock of the pandemic
An x-ray is displayed on a monitor during a dental procedure in Seattle on Feb. 5, 2012. Dentist offices are, in the eyes of some economists, the perfect barometer for gauging the country’s recovery from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic. (Stuart Isett/The New York Times)
(The Upshot)
If not for coronavirus, you’d expect your local dentist office to be doing just fine.
Dentist offices tend to be stable businesses that stick around for decades, unlike restaurants that open and close frequently. Dentists earn a healthy salary — a median of $159,000 — and offer services with no clear substitute. If you need your teeth cleaned or a cavity filled, the dentist is the only option.
This makes them, in the eyes of some economists, the perfect barometer for gauging the country’s recovery from the shock of the pandemic.
“If you look at your typical dentist office, nothing went wrong with their business model,” said Betsey Stevenson, an economics professor at the University of Michigan. “It’s just coronavirus that happened.”
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