DENTAL students in the United States (US) are at a crossroads.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that, compared to all other occupations, there would be six percent more openings for dental hygienists and three percent more openings for dentists between 2019 to 2029.
The pandemic has changed the picture. Just like any other industry in America and even worldwide, dentistry was badly hit by the coronavirus disease 2019.
Changing career prospects has many dental and dental hygiene students in America taking a second look at their options observed a peer-reviewed study conducted by the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry.
The study was based on an online survey of over 250 dental and dental hygiene students.
It found that over 40 percent of those in their final year of school are choosing to change their post-graduation plans.
About the same number of students said they “have not been able to secure their desired post-graduation employment.”
That is a dismal prospect for what was seen as a growing industry before the pandemic.
The American Dental Association reported that the average debt that dental school students have is about $290,000.
“Paying this loan aggressively only makes sense if your income is $250,000-plus after taxes, but realistically it will take over a decade to do so, and making this move severely limits loan borrowing power when looking to purchase a private practice,” according to one respondent covered by the survey.
“It is important that dental training programs have the financial and institutional support to provide safe and supportive in-person, virtual, and clinical training environments,” the study concluded.
It’s not just students. Dentists, too, are feeling the financial heat. Buying personal protective equipment and sanitizing machines comes at a cost.
Just like dentists in other countries, American dentists were required to attend to only emergency cases during lockdowns. Patients with many concerns in mind, safety among them, are not flocking with much enthusiasm to dental clinics./PN
