Almost 75% of dental care professionals (DCPs) spend the majority of their time working in mixed or private practice, new data reveals.
This week, the General Dental Council (GDC) published working patterns data from more than 56,000 DCPs – equivalent to 70% of the DCP register.
What are the working patterns of DCPs?
Some of the key findings from the data include:
- Clinical focus: 87% were doing some clinical work, with nearly half (48%) working in fully clinical roles
- Working hours: 94% were working less than 40 hours a week, with nearly half (49%) working between 30 and 40 hours
- NHS and private care: more than a third (36%) said they delivered a mix of NHS and private care, while over a quarter (26%) were spending at least 75% of their time delivering NHS care. More than a third (36%) were spending at least 75% of their time delivering private care
- Dental nurses dominate: more than three-quarters (77%) had dental nurse as their primary field of practice, followed by dental hygienists (10%)
- Employment varies by role: nearly four-fifths (79%) were employed, though this varies significantly by role – with 65% of dental therapists and 68% dental hygienists being self-employed
- Dental setting: nearly two-thirds (65%) stated ‘general dental practice’. The next most frequently mentioned setting was ‘specialist dental practice’ (12%). For orthodontic therapists the most common dental setting was ‘specialist dental practice’ (64%), and for dental technicians the most common setting was ‘laboratory’ (67%)
- Location: the majority (82%) said they worked in England, followed by Scotland (10%), Wales (5%) and Northern Ireland (3%)
- Place of work: More than three-quarters (77%) stated they worked in one place of work, 14% said they worked in two workplaces, and 8% said they worked in more than two workplaces. Dental hygienists and dental therapists reported commonly working in two (39% and 38% respectively) places of work
- Current employment: 98.5% of respondents said they were currently working within the dental sector, with 1.5% not currently in dentistry but seeking work.
Theresa Thorp, executive director of regulation at the GDC, said: ‘This is our second year collecting the working patterns data, and with a 70% response rate, we’re building a robust picture of how dental professionals work across the UK – from the diversity of employment patterns across different roles, to the balance of clinical and non-clinical work, and the mix of NHS and private care delivery.
‘By continuing to build this picture, we are providing the sector with the transparent data it needs to make informed decisions about workforce planning, ultimately supporting better patient care. We’re grateful to the dental professionals who participated and the organisations that encouraged their members to take part.’
Identifying challenges in the dental workforce
Neil Carmichael, executive chair at the Association of Dental Groups, said: ‘These figures provided today by the GDC will help to fine-tune our current understanding of dental team workforce patterns. Being able to identify challenges will enable us to plan, meaning that the input we give for the NHS 10 Year Workforce Plan will be better informed.
‘Across the four nations we have massive gaps in dental teams currently and we have to get this new plan right to fill this void and improve patient access – not only for NHS dentistry but also in the private sector.
‘DCPs play such a vital role in patient care, particularly since every appointment with a dentist, has to have a dental nurse present. So, when you add the number of over 2,700 dentist vacancies to a similar deficit in DCPs, we are looking at a gap in the workforce that is short of over 5,000 dental professionals across the NHS and Private sectors.
‘Our concern is also that with only 0.8% of dentists actively looking for work, and just 1.5% of DCPs seeking employment, we don’t have a UK workforce lining up to take these jobs on. This is why the ADG has been repeating and repeating the message about the importance of sorting out the bottleneck in the overseas registration examination system, so that in the short term we can put to work the trained international dentists who are ready to care for patients here in the UK, whilst looking at the longer-term workforce needs and strategies.’
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