Oklahoma is Experiencing a Shortage of Dental Professionals

If you've been to the dentist recently, or if you've been trying to get into see one, you probably realize there is a pretty big hiccup in landing your next appointment.

I was in for my six-month cleaning last week and learned something concerning the future of dental health. The entire country and industry is experiencing a shortage of dental professionals, even more so across Oklahoma.

While it made for interesting conversation while my wonderful hygienist did her thing, it didn't set in until she busted out the calendar to schedule my next cleaning and checkup.

Dentists and the entire industry recommend a cleaning and checkup every six months, but the earliest they could see me again was in late May of 2024. That's eight months away.

The conversation about the dental shortages picked right back up at that point, and it seems they have concluded this situation is a lingering effect of the pandemic.

You can remember what it was like in the first few months of 2020. Nobody knew what the expectations were for covid. The government wouldn't tell us how it spread, what the effects were, no treatments, pure confusion.

Just about everything online points to the covid outbreak as the turning point in the dental field. Hygienists and assistants just walked completely out of the industry to take on what they felt were safer jobs with a lot less hassle... but the pandemic isn't the soul reason we're experiencing shortages.

It has a lot to do with the fabric of modern America too.

Historically, dentistry has been an overwhelmingly male-dominated industry. Even in my lifetime, the dentist was the only male working in the office. Everyone else has always been female.

Reception, filing, hygienists, assistants, etc... female, especially in the smaller towns and rural communities throughout this part of the country.

Dentist offices are run like any other small business in our communities. Historically, dentists haven't always offered things like health benefits and/or retirement options. Through time, most women were married so they didn't have to think or worry about that kind of stuff... but these days, as people remain single and independent a lot later in life, thoughts and concerns of benefits have been brought to the forefront of your average dental practice.

Long story short, it seems the other half of the dental hygienist shortage may just be better jobs pop up in bigger cities... but if you looked at the online job listings in that category for OKC, it's just as dire.

All in all, it's probably just a weird combination of many different factors like the pandemic, benefits, pay, etc...