A Canadian population-based study published Monday reveals that the dental workforce is experiencing “considerable” imbalances, both in the geographic distribution of professionals between rural and urban settings and between men and women in terms of earnings.
The study, published in BMC Health Services Research, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal, tallied an active oral health workforce of 12,380 dentists, 20,885 dental hygienists and therapists, and 19,780 dental assistants aged 25–54, based on data from the 2021 census.
“The dental workforce has achieved gender parity in numbers, but women dentists still earned 21% less on average than men, even after adjusting for other characteristics,” the study noted.
The study explained that although the dental profession achieved gender parity among those aged 25 to 54, a significant earnings gap remained, with female dentists earning about 20 per cent less than their male counterparts after accounting for geographic, institutional, and other professional and personal factors.
These findings align with a U.S. study on trends in the gender wage gap within the dental workforce, which noted that despite a convergence in observable characteristics between men and women over time—such as age, work status, race, and parental status—an unexplained residual emerged from the decomposition analysis.
Read more on: women make up majority of dental hygienists but earn 26% less than men on average.
Rural vs. Urban Distribution Disparity
The analysis also found that for every practicing dentist, there were 1.7 dental hygienists/therapists and 1.6 dental assistants. The workforce density included 3.4 dentists per 10,000 people, 5.7 dental hygienists and therapists per 10,000, and 5.4 dental assistants per 10,000.
Although 17% of the population lives in rural and remote areas, only 10% of dentists, 15% of dental hygienists, and 13% of dental assistants practice in those regions. These geographic disparities led to workforce-to-population ratios being 1.9 times higher for dentists, 1.2 times higher for dental hygienists, and 1.3 times higher for dental assistants in urban areas compared to rural ones.
As the federal government continues rolling out the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP), which is scheduled to be fully implemented by 2025, the study warns that the plan does not “explicitly address potential impacts of labour supply, mix, or distribution to fill existing coverage gaps.”
“Like other countries, concerns have been raised about whether dental offices are prepared to focus on person-centred care and if there are enough dental hygienists and assistants to handle the increasing number of patients seeking professional oral healthcare,” the study concluded.
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