The ongoing workforce challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic could continue affecting dentistry for at least a few more years as practice owners and industry executives find the best ways to retain staff.
Dental practice owners and DSO executives have grappled with shortages affecting several key roles, including office managers and dental hygienists.
Huzefa Kapadia, DDS, the owner of Detroit Sterling Dental and Kapadia Dental Care in Waterford, Mich., told Becker's he has struggled with retaining hygienists in the past due to competing salaries.
"I was struggling with a dental hygienist. That's kind of common. A lot of my friends may not even have a dental hygienist. They just do the hygiene themselves because they don't want to use the temp services all the time," Dr. Kapadia said. "We recently lost a dental hygienist and we're on good terms with her. She was part-time in my office, and [another] office wanted her more and was willing to pay her a significant amount of money more to have her in their office."
Dental hygienists and dental assistants have remained two of the most difficult positions to recruit, according to an April survey from the American Dental Association. Out of 550 respondents, 88.8% referred to the recruitment of dental hygienists as "extremely challenging" or "very challenging," while 77.2% referred to the recruitment of dental assistants as "extremely challenging" or "very challenging."
These challenges have led dental practices and DSOs to rethink strategies to retain staff in addition to compensation, including focusing on office culture and offering continuing education benefits. However, compensation could still be the driving force for some employees.
"I try to be easy to work with because what we are noticing, not just in our office but a lot of offices around us, is no one can hold staff," Dr. Kapadia said. "Some staff members want to leave if they're getting paid more somewhere else. I try to tell them, 'Hey, at least in this office you're getting people you like to work with and enjoy being around,' and I'm usually easy to get along with, so I'm trying to use that as an advantage, but it doesn't always work ... I can't always match the amount of money they're getting offered."
Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. projected last year that the U.S. will be short more than 36,000 dental professionals by 2031.
Although many states and dental schools have launched initiatives to bolster the dental workforce, Dr. Kapadia predicts it could take years before practices see any relief.
"I was expecting everybody to come back after Covid and start working again. We're really kind of scratching our heads like, what the heck? … I just can't understand why we still have such a significant labor shortage in dentistry where everyone seems to be looking for dental employees," Dr. Kapadia said. "It's not just the dental industry. There are quite a few other industries, but we're all seeing the same thing. People still can't find enough employees to staff their businesses. I do think it's going to get better. They are training more people for dental hygiene programs as well as dental assisting, but it'll take a while. I think it might take a couple of more years."