Current availability of patients in dental hygiene programs

Dental hygiene programs were surveyed to determine current availability of patients to meet the training needs of dental hygiene students. Eighty-six percent of the programs responded. Widespread inadequate to marginal patient availability was reported in periodontics and radiology. Two major reasons cited for patient shortages were, first, that completion of treatment requires too much time, and, second, that people are unaware of the scope of services performed by students. Patient shortages do not appear to be contributing to changes in the curriculum or fiscal problems in dental hygiene programs.