Dental assistants and hygienists switching careers is a growing trend across the country, and it's resulting in a national shortage. According to the American Dental Association, of the dentists who have recruited staff in the last 3 months, only two out of five have filled open dental hygienist positions. And just over 60% have filled open dental assistant positions. These positions are arguably the most difficult to recruit in the dental field, so leaders at Denver Health are thinking outside the box to meet the need.
Dani Ford is a dental hygienist and an administrator for Denver Health's school-based oral health programs.
"I can see them where they're at in their schools," said Ford. "To give them oral health education and do preventive oral health like cleanings and sealants."
Through Denver Health's partnership with Denver Public Schools, students can schedule a dental appointment during school hours or simply pop in at no cost to them.
"No family will ever get a bill for any of the services that we provide."
Ford will also help train students going through Denver Health's dental assistant program. In order to fill a shortage of both dental assistants and dental hygienists, they received a grant to issue scholarships to cover the cost.
"Students can get their tuition paid for and they can earn a living wage to train on the job and in the classroom. There were quite a few people who left the healthcare workforce after the pandemic, and not as many people, I think, have come back to clinical care."
The goal is to help remove barriers to fill much-needed vacancies in dental offices while also encouraging dental assistants to use it as a steppingstone to become hygienists or move to other roles.
"There's lots of realms that, if you go into a program where you really learn all those skills and all of those foundational things you need, that they can go in and be very confident in what they're saying and what they're doing. So there's hope that it will help them open their horizons to all the other possibilities."
As someone who works in the community and public health realm, she also hopes students will take interest in that space.
"That is an area where it can be very hard to recruit dentists, hygienists, assistants, you know, nurses anywhere, because community health tends to not be able to pay as much as those private office jobs. So we have a need, and we want to be able to provide high quality care to all patients regardless of their circumstances."
Schools around Colorado launched three new dental hygiene programs that just started this fall to also address the need.