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What Current U.S. Consumer Sentiment Tells Dental Practice Owners About the Spending Environment

U.S. consumer sentiment hit the lowest reading in the University of Michigan survey’s history in May 2026, and it has stayed close to that level since. Most consumers also expect to cut back on purchases that have become much more expensive. For dental practice owners, that describes the financial mood your patients live in. It is not a measure of dental demand.

Below, Northwind Marketing explains what the latest consumer data shows, and what it does and doesn’t mean for dental practices.

Consumer sentiment reached a historic low in May 2026

The University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers has tracked how Americans view their finances and the economy for more than 75 years.

The index fell to 44.8 in May 2026. That is below the June 2022 reading of 50.0, recorded when post-pandemic inflation peaked.

Two questions often come up about that number:

  • Is it caused by the survey moving online? No. Using the same web-based method, May 2026 is still lower than June 2022, and lower than any reading since that web data collection began in 2017.
  • Is it driven by politics? National estimates track closely with independents, so the reading reflects broad consumer views.
  • Sentiment has improved only slightly since then. The final October 2026 reading was 48.0, roughly where it stood in September.

The pressure is not evenly distributed

These figures come from a separate round of interviews conducted June 23 to September 21, 2026, asking whether consumers will keep buying items with particularly large price increases. The picture varies widely by household:

  • Income: 42% of consumers in the upper third of incomes expect to keep buying those items as usual, compared with 20% in the lower third.
  • Wealth: 50% of consumers with the largest stock holdings expect to keep buying those items as usual, compared with 18% of those who own no stock
  • Borrowing: Only 14% of consumers say now is a good time to use credit for a major purchase, and 24% say it is a good time to use savings. About 20% of top-income consumers find credit acceptable, compared with 8% at the bottom.

In other words, “the consumer” is not one person.

Why dental practice owners should pay attention

Here’s how we read it at Northwind.

Dental patients are consumers, and this environment shapes how people weigh purchases that are optional, costly, or financed. Cosmetic and elective treatment and larger financed cases share those traits. And because sentiment differs so sharply by income, practices serving different communities may feel it differently.

That makes the data worth understanding. It does not make it a prediction.

What this data does not tell us about dental patients

This section matters as much as the numbers above.

  • The research does not study dentistry. It surveys U.S. consumers generally. It does not measure dental visits, treatment acceptance, dental patients, or dental advertising.
  • Dental care was not among the most common answers. When asked which purchases they’d cut back or delay most, consumers most often named groceries, household items, cars, eating out, and vacations. The report doesn’t say whether anyone mentioned dental care, so it can’t tell us whether patients are delaying treatment.
  • The spending question was broad. It asked about “things” with large price increases without naming them. Consumers could cut some items without reducing their overall spending.
  • Intentions are not behavior. What consumers expect to do and what they ultimately do can differ.

Any claim that consumer sentiment shows patients are postponing dental care goes beyond what this research supports.

The takeaway: useful context, not a dental forecast

For dental practice owners, the data offers a clear view of the spending environment: low confidence, plans to cut back, reluctance to borrow, and wide gaps between households. Whether it is affecting your practice is a separate question that only your own data can answer.

Related: Should Dental Practices Cut Advertising Budgets When Consumer Sentiment Is Weak?

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