Do we have too many dentists? It depends where you live.

Dental as Anything Podcast

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Do we have too many dentists? It depends where you live.

There have been many dire predictions of an oversupply of dentists over the past decade, but do we in fact have too many dentists? Let's find out in this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast.

Matt Hopcraft

Mar 28, 2024

In 2014 a Health Workforce Australia report noted that there would be a significant oversupply of dental practitioners by 2025, and this reflects much of the rhetoric across the profession over the past few decades, with concerns about the increase in dental schools and student numbers, and the migration of international dental graduates.

The data now though paints a different picture, with little evidence that we currently have an oversupply of dental practitioners, despite the significant growth in the number of dental practitioners over the past 20 years. We have seen the number of dentists grow from 47 per 100,000 people across Australia in 2000 to 65 per 100,000 in 2022.

There is certainly a maldistribution of the workforce at a number of levels - with more dentists working in capital cities than regional and remote areas (where the number of dentists has actually fallen in relative terms over the past 5 years).

There is also a strong social gradient to where dentists practice, with significantly more in areas of greater socioeconomic advantage. There are also significantly fewer dental practitioners working in public sector clinics, contributing to long waiting times for care.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I discuss the issues of workforce supply and demand, which is particularly relevant as we ramp up our advocacy to increase government funding for dental programs such as a Senior Dental Benefits Scheme.

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