Workforce skill mix: Modelling the potential for dental therapists in state-funded primary dental care
Open accessAbstract
Background South Central Strategic Health Authority [SHA], with a population of four million, is one of 10 regions of England with responsibility for workforce planning.Aim To explore future scenarios for the use of the skill mix within the dental team to inform the commissioning of dental therapy training.Method Data on population demography, oral health needs and demands, dental workforce, activity and dental utilisation were used to create demand (needs-informed) and supply models. Population trends and changing oral health needs and dental service uptake were included in the demand model. Linear programming was used to obtain the optimal make-up of the dental team. Based on the optimal scenario, workforce volumes and costs were examined across a range of scenarios up to 2013.Results Baseline levels of dental therapists were low and estimated as only achieving 10-20% of the current potential job competency. The optimal exploratory scenario in terms of costs and volume of staff was based on dental therapists working full time and providing 70% of routine care that is within their current job competency; this scenario required 483 therapists by 2013, a figure that appeared achievable. Increasing the level of job competency provided by therapists revealed potentially higher benefits in terms of reduced cost and requiring fewer dentists.Conclusion The findings suggest that dental therapists can play a more significant role in the provision of primary dental care, both currently and in future; they also highlight the need for health services to routinely collect data that can inform workforce analysis and planning.
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There are variations in the scope of practice amongst mid-level providers of oral health, such as dental assistants, dental nurses, dental hygienists, and dental therapists.
“Grouping all mid-level oral health professionals with distinct scope of practice under the umbrella of ‘dental assistants and therapists’ is not particularly helpful, especially for the African context, given variations in the scope of practice amongst mid-level providers [38] of oral health, such as dental assistants, dental nurses, dental hygienists, and dental therapists [30,35,37,49,50].”
From Oral health workforce in Africa: a scarce resource (2023) · cites this paper as [35]
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Oral health workforce in Africa: a scarce resource
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Gallagher, J. E., Lim, Z., & Harper, P. R.
- Affiliations
- St Thomas' Hospital (GB)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Gallagher, Jennifer E.
- Venue
- International Dental Journal
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-04
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 57-64
- ISSN
- 0020-6539 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9374922
- OpenAlex
- W1967019823
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 8.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Dental Journal (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Southampton
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Nursing Roles and Practices
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare Systems and Challenges
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Global Health Workforce Issues
- Keywords
- dental therapists, skill mix, dental workforce planning, primary dental care, linear programming, job competencies, labor costs, oral health needs
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Catchment Area, Health, Child, Child, Preschool, Cost Control, Dental Auxiliaries, Dentists, England, Health Services Needs and Demand, Humans, Infant, Middle Aged, Models, Theoretical, Oral Health, Patient Care Team, Primary Health Care, State Dentistry, Linear Models, Young Adult
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