Devin Amberg is Chief Revenue Officer at Kwikly, a national dental staffing and workforce management solution that employs dental professionals as W-2 employees. He helps dental organizations design workforces that keep every hygiene column producing.
The dental hygienist shortage hasn’t eased, and dental groups working to retain dental hygienists feel it on both sides of the chair.
For practices, it means coverage gaps. Callouts go unfilled, hygiene schedules book further out, and missed recall visits take downstream treatment with them.
For hygienists, it means workload. They absorb reschedules on top of full columns, and sustained long enough, that load leads to burnout. The labor market won’t supply relief: according to the American Dental Association, 31.4% of hygienists expect to retire within 5 years.
These pressures are usually managed separately. In practice, they are the same problem.
Pay still matters, but when compensation is roughly comparable, it stops being the deciding factor. Hygienists weigh how the practice runs: whether their schedule is protected, whether they’re the default answer to every callout, and whether there’s a flexible path to keep working. Those benefits are structural, and building them is the purpose of workforce architecture.
What is workforce architecture for hygiene teams?
Workforce architecture is the deliberate mix of three layers designed to work as one system: full-time hygienists as the foundation, an internal float pool of people who already know the organization, and temporary dental staffing for demand the first two can’t cover. When most absences have a planned answer, coverage no longer defaults to the hygienists already in the building.
What is an internal float pool for dental hygienists?
Many practices already run an informal float pool of group texts, spreadsheets and an office manager scrambling for cover. A structured pool replaces that with a defined roster, clear rules and one place to post open shifts.
For a DSO, a gap at one office can be covered by a trusted hygienist from a nearby office. Team members who want extra hours can pick up shifts, and no one is pressured to.
The pool can also bring back hygienists the organization already trained and lost:
- Former employees who left on good terms and know the software, doctors and protocols.
- Hygienists who want part-time work only.
- Hygienists nearing retirement who want to step down gradually.
Where does temporary dental staffing fit?
Temporary dental staffing is built for last-minute callouts, planned time off and demand beyond internal capacity. It works best inside the same system as the float pool: internal options first, outside coverage for what’s left. For multi-location groups, temporary staffing for DSOs should run through the same place offices already post open shifts.
It helps keep one hygienist’s absence from turning into everyone else’s extra work, and it creates room to open additional columns as demand grows.
How does workforce architecture help retain dental hygienists?
When compensation is comparable, flexibility and control make a practice competitive. Each layer delivers part of that.
Full-time hygienists get protected schedules. With a planned answer for absences, they are far less likely to absorb other people’s patients on top of a full column, one of the fastest routes to burnout.
Float pool hygienists get control. They choose when and where they work, and the organization keeps people it would otherwise lose.
The organizations that keep their teams will be the ones whose people aren’t left to absorb the shortage alone. Design the workforce deliberately, and the same structure that protects production protects the hygienists who deliver it.
Learn more about workforce architecture and how to retain dental hygienists with Kwikly Workforce Management.
