Brazil Dental Care Market Analysis

Dental Care Services Market Executive Summary

Brazil has a huge and diverse market for dental care services. The country has a high number of dental professionals per capita, and a wide range of services are available, including general dentistry, orthodontics, and cosmetic dentistry. Brazil is also well-known for its high-quality dental tourism, with many international patients visiting the country for low-cost, high-quality dental care. GDP healthcare expenditures was 9.5% of GDP, accounting for 43.8% of health costs in Brazil covered by public expenditure, with private expenditureby various instruments accounting for the remaining 56.8%. Brazil's total population in 2020 was 210 Mn, with only 22.4% covered by dental insurance coverage.

Brazil has a public healthcare system known as the Unified Health System (SUS), which provides low-income people and families with free dental care. However, the SUS's coverage and availability of treatments can be limited, and many people prefer to pay for private dental care. Brazil's private sector is very well developed, with several private dental clinics and dental hospitals. Brazil has 412 dental schools in 2020, with 335,800 active dental surgeons. The cost of dental services varies greatly based on location, service type, and the individual's insurance coverage. For customers who want to pay for their treatment over time, several private clinics and dental institutions provide financing options.

The search for and utilisation of services can be used to assess access to health care. However, access cannot be explained solely by need; perception, individual values, organisation, health system financing, sociodemographic characteristics, and other factors all play a role. Despite having a health system based on the ideals of universal, equitable, and impartial access, Brazil is a country distinguished by socioeconomic inequities that have huge implications for health, access, and use of dental services.The Northern area of Brazil has some of the lowest socioeconomic statistics, such as a lower schooling rate and a lower per capita GDP. In all models tested, a negative association was found between the population's socioeconomic position and dental caries. The availability of dental consumables required for the prevention and treatment of dental caries was likewise associated with socioeconomic status, but not with Oral Health Primary Care Teams (OHT) coverage. Capitals with a higher frequency of dental caries in the population did not have a greater availability of material resources for disease prevention and treatment.

Market Dynamics

Market Growth Drivers

Porto Alegre (15%) and Rio de Janeiro (14.9%) had the largest proportions of senior people, while Palmas had the lowest (4.4%). Porto Alegre (80.1%) and Belo Horizonte (80.1%) had the largest proportion of people who had completed more than 15 years of education, while Macapá (65.6%) had the lowest. The GDP per capita ranged from $3,096.53in Maceio to $14,221.56in Vitória, with Brasilia ($12,058.56) and So Paulo ($9136.67) trailing behind.Due to strong correlation of GDP spending per capita and utilization of dental care services, itcan be used as markers to identify the demographic areas of most service deficit areas, and markedly the potential market areas. Also, prevalence of dental problems in higher in capitals like Florianopolis which had the fewest percentage of the population with caries (73.3% of the population - that implies 26.7% of the population were caries free), while Porto Velho had the highest (93.5%). Rio Branco, Belém, So Lus, Natal, Maceio, Curitiba, and Cuiabá all lacked Primary Care Facilities (PCF) with a completely equipped dental office, whereas Belo Horizonte had the greatest proportion of fully equipped PCF dental offices (74.7%).

Market Restraints

Political factors on macrolevel have significantly affected the proliferation of dental care services in Brazil. From 2011 to 2014, to political instability, still during Roussef's administration, from 2015 to 2016, and right-wing Michel Temer's administration (2016-2018), as well as the first year of far-right Jair Bolsonaro's administration – altogether have foiled corporation growth in Brazil and limited awareness of dental health as a priority.There are predominantly professional lead dental practices in the demographic regions where the quality of dental services varies, it is critical to conduct research and select a reputed dentist or dental facility and the absence of such mechanism is a challenge. The federal government has provided access to community oral health promotion programmes focusing on children and adolescents in Brazil by encouraging supervised tooth brushing and fluoride use, particularly in schools, through collective actions of supervised tooth brushing associated with different methods of fluoride use such as fluoride gel, fluoride mouthwash, and fluoride varnish so paediatric population is difficult to capture.

Competitive Landscape

Key Players

• Dental Cremer
• Sorriso Dental
• Dental Plan
• Dental Corp

Notable Recent Deals

January 2020 - OdontoCompany, a dental clinic franchisor in Brazil, has received a significant investment from L Catterton, the largest and most global consumer-focused private equity firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. OdontoCompany is expected to have 700 dental clinics throughout Brazil by the end of 2019. The Company's franchises operate in all 27 Brazilian states, meeting the dental needs of more than 800,000 patients each year.

Healthcare Policies and Regulatory Landscape

In Brazil, access to oral health treatments is provided by either public or private service providers, with the latter being paid directly by consumers or health insurance companies. The majority of public dental services are supplied by oral health primary care teams (OHT). OHT are government-funded healthcare providers who provide free care to prevent disease and promote oral health. The incorporation of OHTs into the Family Health Strategy generated a new paradigm of PHC planning and programming. Taking into account the oral health populational demands was one of the critical public care initiatives in the Brazilian Public Health System's reform of health actions (SUS).

Reimbursement Scenario

Despite the increase of public dental care in Brazil, only 33.6% of the population accessed public dental services in 2019. Direct disbursement accounts for 47% of all payments, followed by private dental plans (11%), and the rest are low-cost private dental plans that offer a minimum range of services such as fluoride application, simple tooth repair and extraction, and supra and subgingival scraping. However, the connection to the family health team (primary care) lowered the likelihood of accessing private services with direct payment. The considerable increase in the number of users of solely dental private plans, along with recent austerity measures, may impair public services in order to benefit this market, highlighting discrepancies in Brazilian oral health.The government's OHT has increased coverage to 43.07% of expenditures through public spending, with an 8.6 Mn increase in first dental visits at primary healthcare.