Developing professional status: an investigation into the working patterns, working relationships and vision for the future of UK clinical dental technicians.

AIMS: To investigate the working patterns and patient base of registered clinical dental technicians (CDTs); their relationships with dentists and other professionals in the dental team; their willingness to work within the NHS and their expectations for the future as a new professional group. METHODS: Face-to-face qualitative interviews of registered CDTs, selected because of their geographic representation and mode of working, informed the development of a postal questionnaire survey of all early registrants with the General Dental Council (GDC). RESULTS: The majority of CDTs reported working part-time, often combining clinical practice with their role as a dental technician. They reported both positive and negative working relationships with dentists and dental technicians, demonstrating collaboration and/or competition depending on whether the scope of CDTs was respected and patient care was shared or lost. CDTs role in the NHS was limited because they did not have the status of becoming a recognised provider of dental care. There was a desire to expand their scope of practice in future. CONCLUSION: CDTs are embracing their new status as an occupational group within dentistry. Core features of becoming a professional group were exhibited including the importance of social and financial status and the need to negotiate their current and future roles in the healthcare system.

Envisioning an oral healthcare workforce for the future.

Health is critical to human well-being. Oral health is an integral component of health. One is not healthy without oral health. As health is essential to human flourishing, it is important that an oral healthcare delivery system and workforce be developed and deployed which can help ensure all citizens have the potential to access oral health care. As such access does not generally exist today, it is imperative to advance the realization of this goal and to develop a vision of an oral healthcare workforce to functionally support access. Public funding of basic oral health care is an important element to improving access. However, funding is only economically feasible if a workforce exists that is structured in a manner such that duties are assigned to individuals who have been uniquely trained to fulfill specific clinical responsibilities. An essential element of any cost-effective organizational system must be the shared responsibility of duties. Delegation must occur in the oral health workforce if competent, cost-effective care is to be provided. Desirable members of the oral health team in an efficient and effective system are as follows: generalist dentists who are educated as physicians of the stomatognathic system (oral physicians), specialist dentists, dental therapists, dental hygienists, dually trained hygienists/therapists (oral health therapists), oral prosthetists (denturists), and expanded function dental assistants (dental nurses).

An analysis of present dental professions in Sweden.

Dentistry in Sweden is predicted to have a shortage of dentists in the future and the division of labour within dentistry will be a more debated question. In order to forecast the effects of such a shortage the professional status of the involved groups must be made clearer. The objective of this paper is to analyse the emergence and present professional status of clinical dental professions in Sweden. The study was conducted on the basis of theories on professions, and their roles in organizations was analysed. The results were applied on the historical emergence, establishment and consolidation of clinical dental professions in Sweden. The results show that a large sector of salaried dentists has not diminished the professional status of the Swedish dentists. Professional ambitions such as many clinical subspecialties and a strong element of research have not been restrained by the public health ambitions in the Public Dental Health Service (PDHS). Presently, other dental professions are dental hygienists, dental technicians and dental nurses. Of these the only other licensed group, the dental hygienists, are an emerging profession. They have an uphill struggle to obtain a full professional status, mainly because their knowledge domains are neither specific nor exclusive to their group. Development of a common core curriculum on a clearly academic level would enhance their professional status. Dental technicians and nurses are lacking fundamental traits as professions. There appears to be little need for additional groups of clinical professions besides dentists and dental hygienists in Swedish dentistry. In conclusion,this analysis provided better understanding of the present status of the Swedish dental professions, to prepare for future restructuring of the dental care system. Further work will be needed to understand the impact of professional traits on the management of groups of professionals.

Will there be a shortage of dental auxiliaries in the future?

The number of graduates from dental hygiene programs continues to increase, but retention of dental hygienists in practices is a concern. The numbers of graduates from dental assisting and especially dental laboratory technology programs are decreasing. The impact on dental practice size and practice productivity is considered.