Workforce

We don’t need to tell you that coming out of the pandemic and over the last few years, Oregon has faced significant dental workforce challenges. These shortages are negatively impacting access to dental care for Oregonians across the state and causing tremendous stress. The Oregon Dental Association (ODA) is committed to addressing these workforce shortages.

Data from the American Dental Association (ADA) Health Policy Institute (HPI) indicates that at the end of 2024, 36% of dentists surveyed reported that they were actively recruiting an assistant or had done so in the last three months. Thirty-two percent reported the same for a hygienist. Of those dentists actively recruiting, 95% reported they found those efforts to be either “very” or “extremely challenging.” Eighty-seven percent reported the same for a dental assistant.

The recruitment and retention of the dental team is essential.  However, the current inability to recruit new members of the dental team means that a key priority of the ODA must be ensuring the ability of dentists to utilize their current team members to their greatest extent. ODA is working closely with the Oregon Dental Hygiene Association and the Oregon Dental Assistant Association to find local solutions to this shortage by promoting the profession and exploring other partnerships.  At the same time, the ODA is exploring ideas, tools and practices already being used in other states that provide new, innovative strategies to do more within the existing workforce.

To help our members to address some the immediate challenges we have gathered and organized information from job boards and educational programs that we hope will help your team.

If you are interested in doing a deep dive into Dental Workforce Shortages: Data to Navigate Today’s Labor Market the ADA Health Policy Institute is great resource.