Types of Dental Occupations in Highest Demand in Washington
Twice a year, oral health providers in Washington share information about their workforce needs with Washington’s Health Workforce Sentinel Network. Educators and policy makers can use this information to understand challenges related to recruitment, retention, and the employee skills that are in highest demand.
The most recent dental office and clinic findings briefs are listed below:
Spring 2024 | Fall 2023 | Spring 2023 | Fall 2022 | |
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View more findings briefs, including findings from Community Health Centers where dental occupations may be employed, on the Sentinel Network website>> |
The table below shows the occupations that Sentinel Network respondents from dental offices and dentals clinics had the most difficulty hiring and the reasons for these exceptionally long vacancies are summarized below the table. More detailed findings from dental offices/clinics are available on our dashboard and in findings briefs linked above.
Dentists, dental hygienists and dental assistants are also employed at community health centers (CHCs), including federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). See the most recent CHC findings brief and dashboard for more details.
Spring 2024 Findings
Reasons for vacancies and turnover
Respondents from dental offices and clinics cited the availability and quality of dental assisting training programs, constraints to increasing dental hygienist supply, and impacts of limited supply and workplace stress on recruitment and retention. Examples of comments include:
- [Dental assistant] WA state shortage. Those that come out of [a local] training programs are poorly trained.
- [Dental assistant] There is a huge lack of schooling options that [have] any value.
- [Dental assistant] Insufficient workforce. Educate high school students of attractiveness of dental assisting as career.
- [Dental hygienist] There is a shortage of dental hygienists in WA. Many of them retired or left the industry after COVID. Hygiene class sizes are small and the average hygienist only works in the field for 6-7 years.
- [Dental hygienist] Not enough hygienists in the labor force for the demand from dental offices and dental patients.
- [Dental hygienist] Insufficient training pipeline in WA state. excessive requirements for out of state practitioners to obtain dental hygiene license in WA compared to other states.
- [Dental hygienist] Qualified, experienced candidates are way too expensive or cannot find quality, experienced candidates.
- [Dental hygienist] Insufficient workforce. potential employees are aware of shortage of providers. I had a hygienist who was very well treated and paid in my office move to another office across town to shorten his commute.
- [Dentist] Severe burn out from staffing shortages and patient demand.
- [Dentist] Limited candidate pool, compensation challenges, community fit for employees and families.
If your dental clinical practice currently has vacancies for dental hygienists, dental assistants, and/or expanded function dental auxiliaries (EFDAs), in what ways, if any, is it affecting patient care and/or your practice and dental team?*
*More than one response could be selected
Dental occupations were also reported at Federally-Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), primary care clinics, and public health organizations as having exceptionally long vacancies and turnover issues. These organizations reported that hiring for dental occupations was complicated by high competition between employers, high salary expectations, and not enough qualified applicants.
- [Dentist] Highly competitive area and few applicants, many offers with high sign on bonus, high pay. Hard to recruit to an area that doesn’t offer the specialty care that urban areas have to keep their skills fresh. Our basic dental needs are so high that we are drowning in basic referrals.
- [Dental hygienist] Limited candidate pool, compensation challenges, community fit for employees and families.
- [Dental assistant] No trained staff to hire- no capacity to train our own, to training programs.
- [Dental hygienist] Difficult to recruit a dental hygienist here in the [our rural area]. We can get a few hygienists to commit to (1) day per week. Never a long-term commitment unless the person was born and raised [here].
- [Dental assistant] Difficult to recruit “good” experienced dental assistants but not nearly as difficult as dentists and hygienists.
- [Dental assistant] Dental assisting is a hard job and the wages don’t align with other jobs. Dentist income has not kept up with other professions, so it makes sense that assistant wages don’t rise much either. I’ve lost multiple assistants to other industries, and most recently lost an assistant to a tribal clinic that pays more than a solo practice can afford to compete with.
- [Dental hygienist] Salaries are so high because of the demand that some hygienists are leaving for higher pay or bonuses elsewhere.
- [Multiple occupations] Severe burn out from staffing shortages and patient demand.
Fall 2023 Findings
Reasons for vacancies reported by Dental Offices/Clinics
Dental offices and clinics reported not enough applicants for open positions as the main reason for exceptionally long vacancies, fewer reported issues around salary, wages, and benefits, and other recruitment and retention issues.
- [Office personnel] Very limited experience, have to train “in house.”
- [Dental assistant] Not enough qualified dental assistants available in western Washington in general. Very high wage expectations have become commonplace causing constant movement of workers from office to office to the highest payers and most benefits
- [Dental assistant] Lack of interest – promote dental interest during job fairs.
- [Dental assistant] Very limited pool with limited experience. Waited due to poor candidate presentations.
- [Dental hygienist] Shortage of trained providers. Lower pay that is not enticing candidates even though there are good benefits.
- [Dental hygienist] Not enough qualified dental hygienists available in western Washington in general. Very high wage expectations have become commonplace causing constant movement of workers from office to office to the highest payers and most benefits.
- [Surgical assistant] Unable to find qualified applicants.
Dental occupations were also reported at Federally-Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), primary care clinics, and public health organizations as having exceptionally long vacancies. These organizations cited similar struggles with filling vacancies, including shortage of qualified applicants and wage competition.
- [Dental assistant, FQHC] We have had a terrible time recruiting DA’s – candidates are sparse. We have created an in-house training program to entice applicants and it’s still tough.
- [Dental assistant, FQHC] Several candidates have stated our pay was too low. Lack of applicants.
- [Dental hygienist, FQHC] We recently filled, but it took more than a year. It has been difficult to recruit as there is a shortage of these professionals, and we are a small organization in a rural area.
- [Dentist, FQHC] Candidates have applied that are seeking NHSC loan and scholarship eligible sites however our site only has a HPSA score of 15 so does not work for these candidates as they need a score higher than that around 18. That has been very challenging for recruitment. We need a HPSA rescore.
- [Dental hygienist, Primary Care Clinic] High turnover, poorly skilled hires taking more resources and demand on staff to train. More competitive wages elsewhere.
- [Dentist, Dental hygienist, Dental assistant, Public Health Organization] We don’t have compatible wages.
To see more responses from dental offices/clinics and community health centers, visit the Sentinel Network website. Summaries of findings from dental clinics and other healthcare sectors can be found on the findings briefs page.
The Sentinel Network is an initiative of Washington’s Health Workforce Council, conducted collaboratively by Washington’s Workforce Board and the University of Washington’s Center for Health Workforce Studies. Funding to initiate the Sentinel Network came from the Healthier Washington initiative, with ongoing support from the Washington State Legislature.