“It’s easy to skip an appointment for dentistry because the weather’s nice outside or something. That’s just part of our normal world. But when (General Motors Corp.) shuts down a plant, people lose their insurance.”

According to surveys by Sageworks Inc., a North Carolina-based analyst of privately held companies, the dental industry posted a 19 percent increase in profit nationwide in the past 12 months, with sales jumping 8 percent in the same time period.

The data was collected from dentists’ accountants, but a Sageworks official declined to specify how many accountants were surveyed.

In Michigan, though, the outlook for dentistry is different as the recession deepens. Ruster, for example, had a 1 percent increase in production but a decrease in collection, or the amount of money insurers paid him.

And according to the American Dental Association, or ADA, dentists nationwide are steadily feeling the effects of the recession, raising questions about Sageworks’ reports.

Nearly 52 percent of about 1,700 dentists surveyed by the ADA in February reported decreased incomes compared to previous years.

Tom Kochheiser, a spokesman for the Michigan Dental Association, said the impact of the
economic climate on Michigan dentists varies by geography.

“It sounds like, at this point, the west side of the state isn’t being hit as hard as the southeast portion of the state,” Kochheiser said.

At Olin Health Center, the number of people visiting the dental clinic is on the decline, said Kathi Braunlich, the center’s communications and planning coordinator.

From June 2007 to June 2008, patients visited the clinic 649 times for checkups, cleanings, fillings and other minor procedures.

Statistics for this year’s attendance are not yet available, but Braunlich said they are expected to be lower.

With the exception of psychiatry and physical therapy, the demand for all medical services at Olin is decreasing, Braunlich said.

“There’s a concern that possibly students are more concerned about their finances and not wanting to come in unless it’s an emergency,” she said.

In addition to revenue changes, the dental industry has seen a shift in the types of services most needed by patients.

More people have been suffering the effects of teeth grinding — jaw problems, headaches and damaged teeth — presumably because of stress generated by the poor economy and employment hardships.

Ruster said the number of people he has seen with teeth grinding problems has increased “a little bit.”

“They may have been doing it all along, but now they’re doing it more,” he said. “It’s not an easy fix.”

Also, the industry is coping with what MSU Pre-Dental Club president Brian Evanski calls “an hourglass effect,” where the demand is high for expensive procedures from well-insured patients, and demand also is high for basic procedures from uninsured patients.

“Dentistry’s either going to the side where you don’t have any coverage and need all sorts of work, or the high-end cosmetic side,” said Evanski, a nutritional sciences senior.

While many dentists might be suffering from diminished incomes, one source of those shortfalls — patients skipping dental care — could create a boom in the future when more expensive procedures, such as cavity fillings and root canals, are needed to make up for missed cleanings.

And for future dentists like Evanski, the demand for dental services will continue through the recession, if only at a slower rate.

“The recession definitely hit a lot of people and you have a lot of factory workers that had dental coverage they lost, but there’s always a need for dental work no matter what,” Evanski said.