Staffing Issues

The dental industry is still dealing with a shortage of providers exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly dental assistants and hygienists. 

A nonprofit dental clinic in Vermont is pausing its services because of a lack of qualified employees, VTDigger reported Jan. 2. 

Alaska is the most difficult place for employers to hire, according to personal finance website WalletHub, and there are 318 dental health professional shortage areas there.

Central Penn College in Summerdale, Pa., is adding three dental practitioner programs to help fill workforce shortages in the state, CBS 21 reported Dec. 26. 

Wisconsin dentists say more dental training programs are needed to grow the state's workforce and alleviate shortages, CBS affiliate WDJT reported Dec. 9.

More than 80 percent of dentists are finding the recruitment of dental hygienists to be "extremely challenging," according to a poll by the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute.

The U.S. dental workforce shrunk by 3 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the American Institute of Dental Public Health.

Here are five dental workforce updates Becker's has reported on since Oct. 11:

More dentists are concerned with staffing shortages at their practices than low patient demand, according to an October survey from the American Dental Association. 

Forty-six percent of dental assistants who voluntarily left the field did so because of insufficient pay, according to the American Dental Association's "Dental Workforce Shortages" report.