Nearly 80 percent of dental practices are finding recruiting dental hygienists "extremely challenging," according to a poll from the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute.
Of the 662 respondents, 79.9 percent said recruiting dental hygienists has been "extremely challenging" and 13.2 percent said it is "very challenging."
The poll was taken as part of the ADA's monthly "Economic Outlook and Emerging Issues in Dentistry" report for the week of May 15.
Here are three other positions dental practices have been recruiting and the levels of difficulty they have faced:
Dental assistants
Extremely challenging: 53.4 percent
Very challenging: 30.3 percent
Moderately challenging: 13.8 percent
Dentists
Extremely challenging: 62.7 percent
Very challenging: 17.4 percent
Moderately challenging: 11.8 percent
Administrative staff
Extremely challenging: 42.1 percent
Very challenging: 32.8 percent
Moderately challenging: 20.5 percent