As of 2023, about 202,304 professionally acting dentists work in the United States, providing critical oral healthcare to patients who need everything from routine cleanings to more complex dental procedures. But these important providers are not distributed equally across the country. In fact, according to the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), around 58 million Americans live in areas designated as a dental health professional shortage area (HPSA). Also known as “dental deserts,” these dental HPSAs are often the most rural areas of the country. One way to water these dental deserts and sprout more equitable oral healthcare is by leveraging locum tenens dentists to expand dental services—read on to learn more about the many benefits of these traveling providers.
What are dental deserts?
Simply put, a dental desert is a geographic area in which residents have little to no access to dental healthcare. As mentioned previously, the HPSA designates certain parts of the country as having a shortage of providers; federal regulations stipulate that in order to be considered having a shortage of dental providers, an area’s population-to-provider ratio must be 5,000 to one or worse.
These dental deserts aren’t in your big cities or dense suburban areas—in fact, many of them are in rural, less-populated parts of the nation. According to the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, about 67% of rural areas in America are considered dental HPSAs. That means the people in those areas have reduced (or no) direct access to the oral care they desperately need.
What’s causing dental deserts in the United States?
Dental deserts exist in the United States for a few main reasons. First, although dental school enrollment is up, newly-graduated dentists are more often choosing to work in urban areas than ones in the corner of the countryside. Public infrastructure in big cities and populated areas is typically much more robust than in rural parts of the country, which can impact a new graduate’s decision when they’re deciding where to live and work.
In addition, many of these new graduates leave school with mounds of debt, and since rural areas are often home to lower-income populations, it can be difficult to recruit newly-minted dentists to these areas since the opportunities for pay are naturally lower.
This also ties into the fact that Medicaid reimbursement is not uniformly distributed to everyone, and many dentists don’t even take this type of insurance option. This leaves many low-income people in these rural areas with even less options for comprehensive dental care.
How can locum tenens dentists help expand dental services?
Locum tenens providers travel to short-staffed healthcare facilities across the country, taking short- or long-term assignments that help maintain continuity of patient care.
Dental practices and other facilities in areas with a shortage of dental providers can take advantage of these traveling providers to fill staffing gaps by taking them on for temporary assignments. By offering short-term assignments in these regions, facilities can fill crucial gaps in the dental workforce and ensure continuity of care for patients who otherwise have limited access to oral healthcare services.
In addition, locum tenens assignments allow specialists like endodontists, orthodontists, and oral surgeons to rotate through dental deserts on a temporary basis. This increased access to specialized dental care can be life-changing for residents of rural and remote areas who may have to travel long distances to receive these services. This also benefits facilities who are looking to increase the scope of the services available to patients.
Finally, locum tenens work offers newer dentists the opportunity to generate considerable income while expanding their horizons by exploring new practice settings and areas of the country. With more locum tenens assignments available, dental providers may not be as inclined to immediately take a position in an urban area, instead lending their crucial services to areas of the country that need it the most.
Partner with Barton Associates for Locum Tenens Dentists
Are you a hiring manager at a dental practice or healthcare facility providing oral healthcare and are struggling to attract dentists to care for your patients? Reach out to one of our experienced recruiters today and we’ll partner with you to find highly-skilled dentists and specialists that meet the needs of your facility in order to expand dental services across the country.
