Hospital staffing crises often dominate the news, but dental care is also facing a significant workforce challenge. The separation of dental care from medical care can have serious consequences, as oral health is closely linked to chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Regular dental care is therefore crucial for overall health and well-being.
Decline in Dental Professionals
If you've recently attempted to schedule a dental appointment, you might have observed a peculiar trend. Like other healthcare professions, numerous dental professionals chose to exit the workforce in the past few years, attributing their departure to the pandemic. What sets dentistry apart, as preliminary federal data suggests, is that while other areas of the healthcare industry have experienced a labour resurgence, employment in dental offices continues to decline across all field levels.
Effect of the Pandemic
The pandemic has led to many dental hygienists retiring, with estimates suggesting that one-third of dental assistants and hygienists may retire within the next five years. Additionally, the ageing dentist population indicates a potential retirement boom. As a result, there is an 11 per cent reduction in dental practice capacity, leading to labour shortages. Despite the challenges, more than half of dentists plan to hire staff this year, although finding suitable candidates still needs to be completed.
Competitive Compensation and Better Working Hours
The pandemic has highlighted the importance of allied dental professionals, such as hygienists and assistants, in successful practices. To attract and retain talent, dentists have made competitive changes to their staff's compensation, including adjusting working hours, offering retirement plans and health insurance, and providing sign-on bonuses and paid time off. These benefits, uncommon in the industry, have led to pay rate increases of up to 30 to 40 per cent in some regions.
Gender and Racial Representation
Competitive compensation is just one of the adjustments the industry must undertake to guarantee universal access to oral health care. It's also essential to become aware of the distinct position to tackle longstanding disparities in racial and gender representation within the healthcare sector and to enhance accessibility in marginalized communities.
Prioritize the Youth
Diversifying and expanding the dental workforce begins by prioritizing the youth. Unfortunately, students in underserved communities often lack exposure to dental career paths and rarely see representation of individuals who resemble them.
More Minority Representation
Increasing the representation of Black, Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native dentists and allied staff requires financial investment in pathway programs and addressing systemic challenges. Dental deserts, often found in rural and lower-income communities, create barriers to dental care. Investing in targeted geographic locations, community-based externships, research, and programs can drive industry change.
Address Obstacles
Investments in oral and overall health are crucial for communities, especially underserved populations. Access issues, such as staffing challenges and language barriers, hinder care. Educating future dental professionals to address these obstacles is vital, including language requirements and focus on public programs like Medicaid.
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