As the dental industry deals with ongoing workforce shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, many are looking for solutions to alleviate these challenges.
Becker's recently asked dentists to finish the sentence, "The U.S. won't resolve its dental workforce shortage until _____."
Here is what five dentists had to say:
Editor's note: These responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Azma Ahmed, DDS. Dental Director at Multnomah County (Ore.) Community Health Center: The employers and training schools figure out how to engage the younger generation. As employers, we have long worked on the principle, here is the job, take it or leave it. This approach no longer works. The younger generation really wants to know what they are getting in terms of monetary value. It is no longer enough to simply share that we offer generous vacation and PTO time. It is imperative that we identify what that translates into in dollar value. It is also important that any bonus/productivity incentives include the support staff as well for retention.
Training schools have operated the same way on business hours for a long time. We must figure out how to leverage the power of remote didactic and combine that with in-person, real world experiences. Large dental organizations must figure out how to create internal workforce pathways that leverage minority and under-represented groups.
Andres Biaggi, DMD. Preferred Dental Center (San Antonio): Until a bonafide licensed dentist can work in any state and city without having to take a board exam again. The other reason is that education expenses are extremely high and less and less candidates will go the dental or medical route. It is really hard just to complete requirements and curriculum, and on top of that add $400,000 of debt.
Manny Chopra, DMD. Center for Dental Health (Cincinnati): The U.S. won't resolve its dental workforce shortage until it implements a comprehensive strategy to increase the number of allied dental professionals. Having the Commission on Dental Accreditation work to change its educational guidance policies will assist in adding capacity to the educational centers. The American Dental Association can help address the dental workforce shortage by promoting initiatives that provide scholarships and loan forgiveness for dental students who commit to working in underserved areas. The ADA has information that can be used by all state dental associations on raising awareness about the dental profession to school age students. This then becomes a grassroots effort to show the value of a career in dentistry.
Sonalika Rungta, DMD (Windsor Locks, Conn.): The U.S. won't resolve its dental workforce shortage until the dental license for hygienists and dentists is easily portable from one state to another (e.g. Florida and Delaware should have a license by reciprocity) and the dental insurance reimbursements increase so practices can pay the team members and dentists better.
Kai Weng, DDS. Dental Designs of Maryland (White Marsh): Insurance reimbursements catch up with inflation. Dentistry is a highly regulated industry and one of the few that cannot change their prices in accordance to the cost of doing business. The workforce shortage issue is directly tied to the fact that you cannot attract talent if you can't afford to pay them. Dentistry is an inherently difficult industry to work in, requiring employees to juggle complex administrative tasks while managing a distinctly human element on both the patient and intra-team level. Why do this if you can get paid the same working at a gas station? While other industries have increased their prices accordingly and raised their wages in response to the post-Covid economy, dentistry has been pigeonholed into increasingly slim margins due to a complete lack of advocacy on the professional level to get insurance to reimburse dentists fairly. This rise of economies of scale, clinical streamlining and outsourcing are all great in terms of running a business with solid fundamentals, but the underlying reason these topics are so prevalent these days, even among privately owned practices, is because dentists are trying to squeeze more juice out of the same dried up lemon.