More than six years after COVID-19 disrupted dental practices across the country, dentistry has largely moved beyond the immediate effects of the pandemic.
But the industry that emerged looks different.
Staffing remains difficult. Operating costs have increased. Reimbursement has struggled to keep pace with practice expenses. And dentists are under growing pressure to maintain productivity while delivering the level of service patients expect.
According to the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute, staffing shortages, insurance challenges, and rising overhead remain among the biggest concerns facing dental practices in 2026. The effects of COVID may no longer dominate the daily conversation, but many of the structural changes it accelerated are still shaping how practices operate today.
The response isn't simply to work harder.
Increasingly, it's to build smarter workflows.
Perhaps the most visible lasting impact of the pandemic has been staffing.
The ADA has noted that COVID accelerated the reduction of an already-declining pool of allied dental professionals as some team members retired, changed careers, or otherwise left the profession.
Years later, the shortage remains.
In April 2026, ADA data showed that only 60% of dentists felt they had an adequate number of dental hygienists on staff. Among dentists actively recruiting or recently recruiting hygienists, 91% described the process as very or extremely challenging.
That creates a difficult reality for practice owners.
If adding another employee isn't always possible, how can a practice increase capacity without continually asking more of the team it already has?
Technology is becoming an increasingly important part of that answer.
Dentistry will always be a hands-on profession. Technology isn't going to automate a crown preparation, replace a hygienist, or substitute for a doctor's clinical judgment.
But there are plenty of tasks surrounding patient care that can be made more efficient.
Consider the number of steps involved in a traditional dental workflow:
Physical impressions need to be poured. Models need to be prepared. Cases need to be shipped. Files need to be manually designed. Restorations and appliances need to come back from a laboratory. Patients may need to return for another appointment.
Digital technology can eliminate or compress many of those steps.
An intraoral scanner replaces a physical impression in appropriate workflows. A 3D printer can manufacture an appliance in the office. A chairside mill or restorative printer can support same-day restorative treatment. AI can automate repetitive digital design work.
None of these technologies replaces the dental team.
They help the team accomplish more with the time available.
Staffing isn't the only challenge.
Dental practices are also operating under increasing financial pressure.
ADA data show that practice expenses have been growing faster than reimbursement, creating what its Health Policy Institute has described as a "fiscal squeeze." Looking toward 2026, 55.3% of dentists identified insurance-related issues among their top three expected challenges, 54.2% cited staffing, and 41.5% cited increasing overhead costs.
That changes the way practices should evaluate technology.
The question shouldn't simply be:
"What does this equipment do?"
It should be:
"Which steps in my workflow does this eliminate?"
A technology investment that saves staff time, reduces outsourcing, eliminates appointments, or creates additional production capacity can have value far beyond its technical specifications.
One of the most significant developments in post-pandemic digital dentistry has been the continued expansion of in-office manufacturing.
Modern practices can now bring workflows in-house that previously required significant laboratory involvement.
Depending on the practice, that may include:
A patient can be scanned digitally, the case designed, and the appliance or restoration manufactured without the traditional shipping and laboratory workflow.
That can mean faster turnaround, greater control over scheduling, and fewer dependencies between the practice and outside production.
It can also make the technology already sitting inside the practice more valuable.
Same-day dentistry is sometimes discussed primarily as a patient convenience.
That's certainly part of its appeal, but there's another side to the equation: operational efficiency.
Consider a traditional crown workflow.
The patient comes in for preparation. An impression or scan is taken. A temporary is fabricated. The case goes to the laboratory. The patient returns for another appointment. The temporary is removed, the restoration is tried in, adjustments are made, and the final restoration is delivered.
With an appropriate chairside workflow, many of those steps can be consolidated into a single visit.
Today's practices also have more manufacturing options than they did even a few years ago. Chairside milling remains a proven approach, while newer restorative 3D printing systems are expanding the possibilities for additive same-day manufacturing.
The important development isn't simply the equipment.
It's the ability to rethink the workflow around the patient.
The same shift is happening in imaging.
CBCT was once viewed primarily as an advanced diagnostic technology. Today, its value increasingly comes from how the imaging data connects with the rest of the digital workflow.
CBCT data can support implant planning, guided surgery, endodontics, orthodontics, airway evaluation, and other advanced treatment workflows.
Combine that data with an intraoral scan, digital treatment planning, AI-assisted segmentation, and in-office manufacturing, and imaging becomes the starting point for a much larger digital process.
The result is not simply more information.
It's a more connected path from diagnosis to treatment.
Artificial intelligence adds another dimension to this conversation.
The ADA's 2026 research suggests dentists are much more receptive to AI for workflow and support applications than they are to handing over clinical judgment. Imaging and diagnostics currently lead reported clinical AI use, while dentists remain far more hesitant about using AI for treatment recommendations.
That's an important distinction.
Some of the most practical uses of AI in dentistry aren't about asking a computer to decide how to treat a patient.
They're about eliminating repetitive work.
AI-assisted services can help with tasks such as:
The doctor still diagnoses. The doctor still treatment plans. The team still reviews the case.
AI simply helps move the digital workflow forward faster.
The dental technology market has no shortage of impressive equipment.
But buying technology without considering how it connects to the rest of the practice can create just as much complexity as it solves.
A scanner should connect efficiently to design.
Design should connect efficiently to manufacturing.
CBCT should connect to treatment planning.
AI should eliminate repetitive steps rather than introduce another disconnected platform.
And printers and mills should support procedures that make sense clinically and financially for the practice.
That's why the conversation around digital dentistry is increasingly shifting from individual products toward complete workflows.
COVID didn't create digital dentistry.
Intraoral scanners, CBCT, CAD/CAM, and 3D printing were transforming the industry long before 2020.
But the environment that followed the pandemic made their efficiency benefits much harder to ignore.
Today's practices are being asked to navigate persistent staffing shortages, rising operating expenses, reimbursement pressure, and evolving patient expectations at the same time.
Technology can't solve every one of those challenges.
But it can help practices use their people, time, and resources more effectively.
The lesson of the post-pandemic dental market isn't that practices need fewer people. It's that every member of the team needs better tools.
The practices best positioned for the next decade may not be those with the most technology, but those using technology to eliminate unnecessary steps, automate repetitive work, and accomplish more with the teams they already have.
At Voxel Dental, that's how we believe digital dentistry should be approached: not one piece of equipment at a time, but one workflow at a time.