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Good dental care is a major contributor to wellbeing and long-term good health for New Zealanders. Our dental care workforce is relatively diverse, and works across Health NZ employment and private practice to ensure we have good oral health:

  • Dentists and dental surgeons are medically trained and provide the core dental services that most adults experience. Dentists and dental surgeons mainly work in private practice, though some are employed by Health NZ; alongside maxillofacial and oral surgeons, most of whom are Health NZ-employed. We have 2,138FTE dentists, dental surgeons, and oral and maxillofacial surgeons registered in New Zealand, of whom only 3.7% work for Health NZ. Like doctors, the number of dentists we train is capped, and cannot naturally increase.
  • Dental or oral health therapists (OHTs) have scopes of practice which allow them to practice on children and young people under the age of 17. Most government-funded dental services for children are provided by oral health therapists. This group also includes dental hygienists, many of whom provide adult hygienist services in the private sector. We have 1,204FTE oral health or dental therapists registered to practice in New Zealand, 33.2% employed by Health NZ.
  • Dental assistants are a non-regulated workforce which provide support for dental care in both Health NZ and private settings. While we do not have exact figures on the number of dental assistants in New Zealand, Health NZ employs 547 dental assistants as of March 2024; many more will work in private settings.

 

 

Today
Our estimates of current FTE shortages across the health sector, based on current ways of working, are around:

By 2033
Based on current trends, models of care and technology, if we do not change how we work, we estimate that by 2033 we would need additional FTE across the health sector of around:

Dentists and dental / oral surgeons

 

+380

15.1% of our total need

+280

11.5% on top of current pipeline

Oral health therapists

 

+130

9.8% of our total need

No additional shortage
based on current trends and models of care

Dental assistants

 

No reliable data or models available.

Our dental workforce faces significant workload. Demand for dental services has continued to rise, with longer wait-times across many of our centres than we want. Linked to this:

  • We train relatively modest numbers of dentists, dental surgeons and oral and maxillofacial surgeons – and training volumes are capped. This cap has not risen as recently or frequently as the cap on medical training, which has constrained supply. The pathway for specialist oral and maxillofacial surgeons is particularly long and complex, making these workforces slow and expensive to train.
  • Training volumes for oral health therapists also remain relatively modest, with under 100 enrolments per year typical. We have made improvements to this over the past year, increasing student enrolments by over 17% between 2023 and 2024.
  • Dental demand can readily enter a cycle of worsening demand where there is unmet need. Children and young people who do not receive timely oral health care present later, with worse oral health problems – which then require more acute management by our oral health workforces.

Because most adult dental care in New Zealand is private, there are relatively sharp inequities in access to primary dental care; with cost often a barrier to Māori, Pacific and low socio-economic status whānau accessing dental care.

The opportunity

Ensuring New Zealanders receive excellent, proactive dental care offers significant benefit for our communities and for the health system.

In the short-term, fast-moving measures to strengthen our dental workforces can help us reduce the burden of disease from dental issues.

The best opportunity to do so is investing in training capacity for our dental assistant and oral health therapist workforces, which can free up capacity for OHTs, dentists and dental surgeons to work to the top of their scopes, dedicating more time to patient care. We intend to focus on expanding training capacity for these workforces.

What will it take?

Given our significant need for both short-term growth and long-term sustainability for our dental workforces, we’re going to need several angles of attack over the next three years. Our priorities are to:

  • Provoke major growth in oral health therapist and dental assistant training. For a sustainable dentistry workforce, we will need to start with major growth in the number of oral health therapists we train, supported by more dental assistants. While we do not currently have future predictions for demand on our dental workforces, New Zealanders’ dental care needs are likely to grow rather than decline over time – and we need to address our current shortfalls to catch up with and stay ahead of demand.
    While this won’t provide immediate relief, it will help grow what we need from 2028.
  • Target international recruitment pathways. Current pathways for overseas-trained oral health therapists are cumbersome – and need change to allow us to recruit the volumes we need for future demand. We need to tackle these swiftly to get growth.
    Over the long-term, we will also need more dentists – with a focus on growing the dental workforce in the public sector, which is highly vulnerable. To do this New Zealand may need to explore increasing the number of dental training places available, aligned proportionately to increases in medical training. This is a significant policy decision, with fiscal implications for government.
Action What we'll do
1.1 Secure training capability Secure 100 new training places for students in tertiary training programmes where we need growth – including for oral health therapy.

3.3 Attract students to health careers

Launch a national attraction campaign to get students interested in health careers.

4.2 Expand medical training in vulnerable specialties

Add 6 dental advanced training roles in Health NZ services.