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KevinMd

Concern is rising about the shortage of health care workers in the U.S. As Senator Bernie Sanders told the media, “We don’t have enough doctors. We don’t have enough nurses. We don’t have enough psychologists or counselors for addiction. We don’t have enough pharmacists.”

However, dental health has long been treated as a luxury. For instance, some 76.5 million Americans have no dental insurance. Even those with insurance may not have access to oral health care, as evidenced by 70 million Americans who live in oral health professional deserts, with no nearby dental providers and services. In times of economic downturns, states often cut Medicaid dental health benefits for adults. But dental health is not a luxury: It is a basic health need, associated with positive health outcomes. And American oral health could easily be improved effectively and affordably: more dental therapists.

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DrBicuspid

January 6, 2023 — A 22% pay gap exists between male and female dentists in the U.S., but why women continue to get shortchanged cannot be fully explained, according to a large study published on January 5 in the Journal of the American Dental Association.

Race, ethnicity, bilingualism, employment factors — including employee versus owner status — and household characteristics — including spouse or partner occupation — explain only about 27% of the income gap between men and women dentists, the authors wrote.”The income gap between sexes, although reduced over time, is now less explainable than in the past,” wrote the authors, led by Dr. Simona Surdu, PhD, co-deputy director of the Oral Health Workforce Research Center at the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY) in Rensselaer…

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Dentistry Today

The COVID-19 pandemic upended the healthcare system and prompted the use of telehealth by providers in medicine, behavioral health, and oral health. Dental providers are particularly susceptible due to the aerosols generated during dental procedures that could facilitate COVID-19 transmission. This high risk resulted in the suspension of many routine dental procedures in the early days of the pandemic, severely limiting access to oral health services. Across the US, states have implemented teledentistry in response to COVID-19 in varying degrees.

With the rapidly evolving use of teledentistry, a new study conducted by the Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) at the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) conducted case studies on the use of teledentistry following the COVID-19 pandemic in 4 states—California, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin…

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Crain’s New York Business

The city’s health care workforce is leaving pre-pandemic levels in the dust as it continued its steady growth through last month, buoyed largely by gains in health care services outside of hospitals, new state data shows…

…Robert Martiniano, senior program manager at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health’s Center for Health Workforce Studies, attributed that to rising demand for home health care services that is fueled by an aging population and the growing popularity of aging in the community rather than in a residential facility.

Home care, which is categorized under ambulatory services in the state’s data, tallied nearly 247,000 workers in September—a 13.6% jump year over year.

Also within ambulatory services, jobs in physician’s offices rose 6.7% from 60,000 in September 2021 to 64,000 last month. Outpatient care centers reported about 24,000 workers, up 6.3% from a year ago.

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