Bureau of Labor Statistics

The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, in their Occupational Outlook Handbook, states that for dental assisting “Job prospects should be excellent. Employment is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2018.” Additionally, the Buerea of Labor, on their website under Employment Projections – Fastest Growing Occupations, 2004-14 – ranks dental assisting 9th out of 30 of the fastest growing occupations. The American Dental Association’s most recently published statistics (2012) corroborate these numbers.
Simply put – dentistry has been, is and will continue to face a crisis as it specifically relates to the extreme shortage of dental assistants. There are a number of factors that have contributed to this dilemma. Notably among them are the impact of managed care on the both the number of patients dentists typically have to schedule per day, the lack of available time for the dentists and/or staff members of the pratice to conduct on the job training, and the negative impact on office productivity and revenue when on the job training is attempted; the heavy cost of formal institutional training; and the “life expectancy” of the typical dental assistant(this latter point is based on the ADA’s profile of dental assistants averaging 4 years in profession and most often between the starting ages of 18-35). These last factors are evidenced in the closings of full time dental assistant training schools and that class registrations have been averaging 50% of available seats in full time dental assistant training programs.
Dentists today are seeking assistants who have gained the basic knowledge and skills from hands on training wherein they are an asset to the dental practice from day one of employment. The department of Labor states, “Dentists are expected to hire more assistants to perform routine tasks so that they may devote their own time to more profitable procedures.”
In summary, dentists’ productivity and income are totally dependent upon maximizing patient care and treatment. This directly results from using chair side hours to perform needed and productive procedures with experienced assistants. Maximizing efficiency requires dentists also employ assistants with basic knowledge who can perform the myriad of other tasks that would otherwise compromise the time of the experienced assistant.