Potential Solutions for Dentists and Dentistry
Despite these obstacles, there are several clear remedies to build a stronger oral health workforce in the Commonwealth. These include:
Every practicing dentist should encourage career-minded patients, particularly those in high school, to consider a career in dentistry. This profession offers high salaries, financial stability, and a growing demand. In addition to these benefits, dentists experience a sense of fulfillment from being respected professionals who improve their patients’ lives. Dentists are the best advocates for their own profession.
High school programs across the Commonwealth should promote STEM( Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and health careers in schools and future college education.
The Commonwealth should work collaboratively with dental educators and groups like the PDA to attract graduating dental students to our state through tools like loan repayment and forgiveness programs, scholarships and grants to encourage practice in rural and other HPSA areas, and through tax incentives for dentists establishing new practices in communities with high need.
Dental Schools should expand programs that place dental students and residents in community settings to increase the likelihood for those students to remain in these areas after graduation. Our curricula should emphasize disease prevention, how medicine and dentistry are intrinsically connected, and how communities cannot be considered healthy if residents cannot access adequate oral health.
References
1 2023 Pennsylvania Dentist and Dental Hygienist Workforce Survey Report, https:// www. pa. gov / content / dam / copapwp-pagov / en / health / documents / topics / documents / programs / 2023 % 20 Pennsylvania % 27s % 20Dentist % 20and % 20 Dental % 20Hygienist % 20Workforce % 20Survey % 20 Report. pdf
2 Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health. Access to Oral Health Workforce Report Part II, 2022. https:// paoralhealth. org / wp-content / uploads / 2023 / 01 / PCOH-23-Workforce _ full-report. pdf
3 ADEA Dental School Applicants and Enrollees Report, 2024 Entering Class https:// www. adea. org / docs / default-source / adea-main / research-publications / applicants / adea-u-s-dental-school-applicants-andenrollees-2024-entering-class. xlsx? sfvrsn = 8cd88413 _ 1
4 ADEA Dental School Applicants and Enrollees Report, 2024 Entering Class https:// www. adea. org / home / publications / research-and-data / applicantsenrollees-and-graduates / 2024-applicants-and-firsttime--first-year-enrollees
Schools, professionals and government partners should work together to reduce the bureaucracy attached to licensing and transferring practices
The business community should be educated to the economic costs tied to inadequate access to dental care.
Each of us has a role to play in addressing the shortage of dentists in the Commonwealth. Let’ s make the future brighter for our patients and for our profession.
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2025 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL 25