South Florida Aesthetics, Beauty and Dental Report: September 2026

This report covers Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties and the businesses that sell appearance and oral health: dental practices, beauty salons and spas, med spas and aesthetic clinics, and the dermatology and plastic surgery offices at the clinical end of the trade. Figures come from federal and Florida public data, with the vintage stated wherever the data is older than this month. Some figures come from Pixedi's own measurement of local business websites in late September and at the start of October 2026, and they are labeled as such where they appear.

Key findings

• The US consumer price index for dental services rose 5.0% year over year in August 2026, compared with 2.0% for physicians' services.
• Personal care services prices in August 2026 stood 37.6% above August 2019, the steepest climb of any price series in this report.
• The four counties held 42.9% of Florida's active plastic surgeon NPI records and 36.8% of dermatologist records in the September 2026 federal provider file.
• Manufacturer payments to Florida recipients tied to botulinum toxin brands rose 46.0% in 2025 versus 2024, even as total manufacturer general payments in Florida changed -30.8%.
• Florida had 701 licensed electrolysis facilities at the end of fiscal year 2024-25, compared with 340 in fiscal year 2018-19.
• Only 397 dentists who obtained an NPI in 2025 are active in Florida today, against 521 from the 2019 cohort.
• Of the local dental, beauty and aesthetics sites Pixedi tested, 26.1% failed to load or were parked.
• Among reachable beauty salon or spa websites, 46.8% have no tap-to-call link on the home page.
• On a simulated mid-range phone over a slow 4G connection, the median tested site took 8.2 seconds to show its largest element.

Prices: dental and personal care are running hot

Dental care is getting more expensive faster than physicians' services or local medical care overall. The US consumer price index for dental services rose 5.0% year over year in August 2026 and sits 31.6% above August 2019. On the practice side, the producer price index for offices of dentists rose 3.5% over the same twelve months. The consumer measure running ahead of the producer measure suggests patients are feeling increases a little faster than the headline fee schedules alone would imply, and an owner setting next year's fees is doing so in a market where patients have already absorbed several years of steady increases.

• Dental services (US CPI)5%
• Personal care services (US CPI)4.2%
• Medical care, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach (CPI)3.7%
• Physicians' services (US CPI)2%

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Physicians' services look tame by comparison. That index rose 2.0% year over year in August 2026 and is 14.8% above August 2019. Locally, the consumer price index for medical care in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area rose 3.7% year over year and stands 20.5% above August 2019. So South Florida's overall medical prices have moved faster than physicians' fees nationally but slower than dental.

The sharpest long-run climb belongs to personal care services, the category that covers salons and similar services. That index rose 4.2% year over year in August 2026 and is 37.6% above August 2019. These are national figures, but they tell a salon or spa owner that customers across the country have already accepted large price increases since before the pandemic. Pixedi's website measurement shows how local businesses are presenting cost: 44.3% of reachable dental, beauty and aesthetics sites mention financing or a payment plan on the home page, and 29.6% mention a membership or savings plan.

Clinicians: plenty of dentists, a thinner flow of new ones

South Florida is well supplied with dentists on paper. Florida had 16,754 active NPI records for dentists in the September 2026 federal provider file, and the four counties accounted for 34.7% of them (5,813 of 16,754). They also held 41.5% of the state's dental clinic or center records (932 of 2,245). The latest county density data, for 2024, puts the four-county area at 81.9 dentists per 100,000 residents, compared with 65.6 statewide and 79.4 in Miami-Dade alone.

Supply and use are two separate things, though. The most recent county estimate of dental visits, from 2022 and preliminary, found that 52.6% of Miami-Dade adults saw a dentist in the past year, compared with 59.2% in Palm Beach and 56.1% in Broward. Florida had 213 designated dental shortage areas or facilities on the federal list in late September 2026, and 26 of them were in the four counties. For a Miami-Dade practice, the larger opportunity is the adults who have not seen a dentist in the past year.

The flow of new dentists is worth watching. A preliminary cohort count shows 397 dentists who obtained their NPI in 2025 are active in Florida today, against 521 from the 2019 cohort, a change of -23.8%. Because the older group has had six more years to retire or leave the state, a smaller recent cohort is a meaningful signal for hiring. License counts are still growing, with 20,545 dentist licenses (14,960 active in-state) and 21,618 dental hygienist licenses (16,899 active in-state) at the end of fiscal year 2024-25, representing increases of 6.8% and 8.7% respectively.

Nurse practitioners show strong growth in new providers. Florida had 46,597 active NPI records for nurse practitioners in September 2026, and the four counties held 34.0% of them (15,855 of 46,597). The 2024 density figure is 196.1 per 100,000 residents in the four counties, against 163.0 statewide and 246.3 in Miami-Dade. A preliminary cohort count shows 3,571 nurse practitioners from the 2025 cohort active today versus 2,966 from 2019 (+20.4%), and Florida counted 66,600 APRN licenses at the end of fiscal year 2024-25, up 7.5%. Florida had 14,586 active NPI records for physician assistants, 26.0% of them in the four counties (3,794 of 14,586), and 16,752 physician assistant licenses at the end of fiscal year 2024-25, up 9.5%.

The medical side of aesthetics

South Florida has a high concentration of specialist aesthetic clinicians. The four counties held 42.9% of Florida's active plastic surgeon NPI records, which was 235 out of 548, and 36.8% of the dermatologist records, or 554 out of 1,507, in the September 2026 file. The latest dermatologist density data, for 2023, shows 5.8 per 100,000 residents in the four counties against 4.1 statewide. Looking at Medicare billing from 2024, there were 1,045 dermatology providers in Florida, a 5.3% increase from 2019, with 390 in the four counties. Plastic and reconstructive surgery providers dropped to 289, a 17.9% decline from 2019, with 105 in the four counties. Despite the drop in surgeon numbers, Medicare paid Florida plastic surgery providers $55.0 million in 2024, which is 77.3% higher than 2019.

Manufacturer money tells the clearest story about where the aesthetics trade is heading. Drug and device makers reported $231.6 million in general payments to Florida clinicians and teaching hospitals in 2025, a change of -30.8% from 2024. Over the same year, preliminary figures show payments tied to botulinum toxin brands reached $3.45 million, up 46.0% and up 234.0% versus 2019, and payments tied to aesthetic injectables and body-contouring or skin devices reached $3.52 million, up 47.9% and up 240.4% versus 2019. Recipients in ZIP codes 330xx-334xx took 33.1% of all Florida general payments ($76.6 million). Makers cut back overall while the aesthetic slice grew, although the aesthetic groupings remain a small share of the total.

State registrations point the same way. Florida had 770 active physician office surgery registrations at the end of fiscal year 2024-25, compared with 620 in fiscal year 2018-19, and 701 licensed electrolysis facilities against 340 over the same span. Electrologist licenses rose 18.8% in a year to 3,885 (3,204 in-state active), far faster than medical doctor licenses, which rose 3.2% to 99,475. Federal safety reporting is mixed and should be read with care, since these are unverified reports and do not show causation: the FDA received 90 dermal filler device reports nationwide in 2025 against 33 in 2019, while reports naming onabotulinumtoxinA fell to 5,312 from 6,167.

How practices are organized

Dermatology and plastic surgery have gone in different directions on ownership. Federal enrollment data from late September 2026 puts 37.7% of Medicare-enrolled dermatologists in Florida billing through groups of 50 or more clinicians, while only 14.9% (164 of 1,100) bill outside any group practice. Among plastic surgeons, 37.8% (131 of 347) bill outside a group.

For an independent dermatologist, that means competing against large groups with shared marketing and scheduling. For a med spa or aesthetic clinic, the plastic surgery field is still largely made up of independent practices, which shapes both referral relationships and who is advertising in the same local search results.

Websites: the front door is often broken

Pixedi started from the public map. OpenStreetMap lists 475 dental practices, beauty salons, spas, med spas and aesthetic clinics across the three mainland counties of the metro area; 178 carry a website link, pointing to 161 distinct sites because chains share one. Pixedi requested all 161 at the start of October 2026: 115 returned a usable page, 4 blocked an automated request and 42 failed or were parked. That puts 26.1% of listed sites in the failed or parked group, and 2.5% behind a hosting bot shield. A customer who taps a map listing and lands on a dead page is a lost booking the owner never hears about.

• Dental practices (47 sites)8.5%
• Med spas and aesthetic clinics (21 sites)14.3%
• Beauty salons and spas (47 sites)46.8%

Source: Pixedi

The sites that do load mostly get the basics right: 99.1% use a secure HTTPS address and 99.1% declare a mobile viewport. The gaps show up in how customers get in touch. 25.2% of reachable sites have no tap-to-call link on the home page, and the split by trade is wide: 8.5% of the 47 dental sites, 14.3% of the 21 med spa or aesthetic clinic sites, and 46.8% of the 47 beauty salon or spa sites. Booking is more common, with 74.8% offering an online booking, appointment or quote path (80.9% for dental, 76.2% for aesthetics and 68.1% for beauty), but only 36.5% load a recognizable third-party scheduling tool, and 15.7% run live chat or text messaging.

What the home page says varies a lot. Reviews or testimonials appear on 60.9% of reachable sites, financing on 44.3% and a dollar price on 35.7%. Same-day, emergency or round-the-clock service appears on 34.8%, insurance on 32.2% and before-and-after content on 26.1%. Spanish was less common, with 17.4% offering a Spanish version or saying they speak Spanish on the home page.

Many owners also cannot see what their site does. 69.6% of reachable sites load Google Analytics or Tag Manager, but 29.6% load neither that nor a Meta pixel on the home page, so those sites run none of the most common visit or ad tracking tags. 38.3% carry business-type structured data that helps search engines read hours and services, 33.9% run on WordPress, and 17.1% of sites showing a copyright year show 2024 or earlier, a small sign that nobody has touched the footer in a while.

Speed on a phone

Pixedi ran a mobile Lighthouse performance test on 50 of the sampled sites in the week to the start of October 2026, and 48 completed with a score. The median score was 62 out of 100. 16.7% scored below 50, the poor band, and 10.4% scored 90 or higher. By trade, the 16 dental sites had a median of 68, the 12 med spa or aesthetic clinic sites a median of 62 and the 20 beauty salon or spa sites a median of 57.

• Dental practices (16 sites)68 score out of 100
• Med spas and aesthetic clinics (12 sites)62 score out of 100
• Beauty salons and spas (20 sites)57 score out of 100

Source: Pixedi

The problem is what happens after the server answers. The median reachable site responded to a plain request in 0.62 seconds and served 224 KB of HTML, which is quick. But on a simulated mid-range phone over a slow 4G connection, the median tested site took 8.2 seconds to show its largest element, 83.3% took longer than 4 seconds, and 10.4% met the 2.5-second mark. The median site blocked the main thread for 113 milliseconds, and 8.3% shifted their layout enough to rate poor on visual stability. In practice, the weight sits in images and scripts loaded after the page starts.

What changed since the last edition

This is the first edition of this report, and future editions will track month-to-month movement against the figures set out here. The newest data vintages are August 2026 for consumer and producer prices, September 2026 for the federal provider file, late September 2026 for Medicare enrollment and the dental shortage list, and late September to the start of October 2026 for Pixedi's website measurement.

Methodology and sources

Price figures come from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics: the consumer price index for dental services, physicians' services, personal care services and medical care in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area, and the producer price index for offices of dentists, all for August 2026 with comparisons to August 2019. Clinician counts and county shares come from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services NPPES file for September 2026, by primary taxonomy and Florida practice location. Manufacturer payments come from CMS Open Payments for 2025 (general payments, first listed product only for the product groupings). Medicare provider counts and payments come from CMS Part B data for 2024, and group practice figures from the CMS national clinician enrollment file as of late September 2026.

Density per 100,000 residents comes from the HRSA Area Health Resources Files (2024 for nurse practitioners and dentists, 2023 for dermatologists, based on the AMA Masterfile). Dental shortage areas come from HRSA's designation list as of late September 2026. Florida license and facility counts come from the Florida Department of Health, Division of Medical Quality Assurance, for fiscal year 2024-25. Dental visit rates are CDC PLACES estimates for 2022. Safety reports come from the FDA's public adverse event and device report databases for 2025 and 2019; these reports are unverified and do not establish causation.

Website figures are Pixedi's own measurement. The sample frame is OpenStreetMap listings in the three mainland counties of the metro area; every distinct linked site was requested once with a plain automated request, and home pages were checked for the signals described above. Mobile performance was measured with Lighthouse on a subset of sites, using a simulated mid-range phone on a slow 4G connection.

The following figures are preliminary: the NPI cohort comparisons for nurse practitioners, dentists and physician assistants; the year-over-year and 2019 comparisons for total Florida manufacturer payments; all botulinum toxin and aesthetic injectable or device payment figures; the 2022 dental visit estimates; both FDA report counts; and, from Pixedi's measurement, the booking path, scheduling tool, financing, Spanish-language, structured data, chat, reviews, copyright year, response time, membership, price, before-and-after, insurance and same-day figures, the per-trade booking and tap-to-call figures, the main-thread and layout stability figures, and the per-trade Lighthouse medians.

Sources

1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics
2. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (NPPES, Part B, clinician enrollment)
3. CMS Open Payments
4. HRSA Area Health Resources Files and shortage designations
5. Florida Department of Health, Division of Medical Quality Assurance
6. CDC PLACES
7. US Food and Drug Administration (openFDA)
8. OpenStreetMap

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