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Updated: Jun 11, 2025
08:47
Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
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Imbalances in the oral health workforce: a Canadian population-based study
1University of New Brunswick, Tilley Hall room 20, Fredericton, E3B 5A3, Canada. ngupta@unb.ca.
BMC Health Services Research
|October 7, 2024
Summary
Canada's dental workforce faces significant geographic and gender disparities, impacting access to care despite a new public insurance plan. Addressing these imbalances is crucial for equitable oral healthcare delivery and achieving health goals.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Health Workforce Research
- Health Equity
Background:
- Canada is implementing a federal public dental insurance plan (2022-2025) to improve financial access to dental services.
- Limited evidence exists on the supply and distribution of human resources for oral health (HROH) to meet population needs.
- Understanding workforce imbalances is key to enhancing service coverage.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify occupational, geographical, institutional, and gender imbalances in the Canadian dental workforce.
- To inform benchmarking of HROH capacity for improving dental service coverage.
- To identify disparities in the context of a new national dental insurance plan.
Main Methods:
- Utilized 2021 Canadian population census microdata for dentists, dental hygienists/therapists, and dental assistants.
- Assessed geographic maldistribution using the Index of Remoteness.
- Performed Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions to analyze gender-based earnings inequities.
Main Results:
- Canada has 3.4 active dentists per 10,000 population, with allied staff ratios of 1.7 hygienists/therapists and 1.6 assistants per dentist.
- All dental professional groups were overrepresented in urban areas compared to rural and remote regions.
- Gender pay gaps persist: women dentists earned 21% less and women dental hygienists/therapists earned 26% less than their male counterparts, with unexplained factors.
Conclusions:
- Significant geographic and gender imbalances exist within Canada's oral health workforce.
- These disparities pose challenges to achieving universal oral healthcare coverage and health equity.
- Further research is needed for innovative, equity-focused HROH planning and financing within public policy.
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