DALLAS, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The health of the dental benefits industry showed visible signs of recovery at year-end 2023, following market disruptions resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic. The 2024 State of the Dental Benefits Market Report, recently published by the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP), highlights these encouraging trends.
Throughout 2023, the dental benefits market was in the process of returning to pre-COVID conditions. Federal and state subsidies were unwinding; the Public Health Emergency ended, and public programs were returning to pre‐pandemic operations and policies.
Key trends reverting to or continuing long‐standing patterns include:
- Annual Maximum Benefit levels continued to trend higher with 65% at $1,500 or more as compared to 47% at the same level in 2014.
- Annual deductibles for dental plans continued to trend lower with 40% under $50 as compared to 20% in 2014.
- Change in benefit utilization normalized.
- Total enrollment dipped slightly in 2023 to 87% of the population compared to 88% of the population in 2022 due to Medicaid “unwinding”; however, the mix of benefits enrolled remained very stable in terms of the percentage of enrollment, with 63% in commercial benefits and 37% in publicly funded benefits.
- Premium changes continued to remain very stable and below inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index of 3.4%. While dental premiums increased in totality, the increase, 0.5%, was still far below the 8.3% increase for medical plan premiums.
- Enrollment in Exchange‐based dental plans continued to grow as more states are operating their own state‐based marketplace (SBM). Since 2021, enrollment in standalone dental plans in SBMs increased from approximately 1.75M to nearly 2.9M in 2025.
“NADP research tells a convincing story highlighting the value of dental benefits in improving access to dental care and overall health outcomes. It also demonstrates the resilience of our industry,” said NADP Executive Director Mike Adelberg. “The report tells us that the dental benefits market is stable, and benefits continue trending toward greater generosity. People with coverage continue to seek necessary services far more often than those who lack coverage.”
The report indicates that covered individuals are twice as likely (60%) to visit their dentist every six months as compared to the dentally uninsured (31%), a trend that has been prevalent for decades. Finally, satisfaction with dental benefits increased significantly since 2015 with the Net Promoter Score™ (NPS) rising to 23 in 2024. NPS is a customer experience metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction. NPS is calculated by asking customers how likely they are to recommend a company to a friend or colleague on a scale of 0 to 10. The score is determined by subtracting the percentage of "detractors" (those who rate 0‐6) from the percentage of "promoters" (those who rate 9‐10). The resulting NPS score ranges from ‐100 to 100.
About NADP
NADP is the largest non-profit trade association focused exclusively on the dental benefits industry. NADP members provide dental HMO, dental PPO, dental indemnity, and dental savings plan products to more than 200 million Americans with dental benefits. NADP members include the entire spectrum of dental carriers: companies that provide both medical and dental coverage, companies that provide only dental coverage, major national, regional, and single state companies, as well as companies organized as non-profit plans.
CONTACT:
Michael Adelberg
NADP Foundation President
NADP Executive Director
(972) 457-1554
madelberg@nadp.org
