Where has the workforce gone?

Over the last few months Health Education England (HEE) has been sharing proposals on the review of dental training. The proposals appear to be fairly significant and if accepted could result in a monumental change to the way the dental workforce is trained in the future. Its proposal would result in the introduction of a common entry to shared degree courses for dentists and other dental care professionals. This could be a departure from the current approach where the entry to dentistry and medicine remains similar but is distinct from other courses.

These changes could invert the current programme structure resulting in applicants potentially not knowing if they will exit as a dental surgeon or a dental hygienist. On the one hand this may suit the government as it provides for even more control over the profession but this may also distort the market of education so much that dental surgery becomes unattractive as a career pathway. There is a knock-on risk in that the current parity with medicine is also lost in the process.