A Cross-Sectional Study of the Current and Future Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy Student Workforce in the UK and Ireland During 2022-2025: Considering Facilitators and Barriers to the Growth of This Workforce.

Introduction: With evidence suggesting that dental hygienists (DH) and dental therapists (DThs) can undertake a significant proportion of routine clinical work, this paper explores the number of recent graduates and students currently in training in the UK and Ireland and considers whether there are sufficient DH and DTh registrants to positively impact on population needs.

Methods: An online questionnaire survey was distributed by the Directors of Dental Hygiene and Therapy Group to all programme leads of dental hygiene and dental therapy programmes during December 2023.

Results: There was a 100% response rate. The majority of programmes award a Bachelor's degree, with a minority offering a Diploma or Foundation degree; one programme awards an MSc level qualification. The number of graduates in the 2022-2023 academic year was 429, registered with both the General Dental Council (GDC) and Dental Council of Ireland (DCI). The numbers of DH students expected to graduate in 2023-2024 academic year is likely to increase by 44% and in 2024-2025 this will increase by a further 12% compared to the previous year. The anticipated numbers of DTh graduates registering across the UK in 2023-2024 academic year is 312, representing in a slight decrease of 3% from the previous year; in 2024-2025 this figure is expected to remain static at 313.

Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate the numbers of students recently graduated and in training in the UK and Ireland, during 2022-2025. The numbers of registrants is slightly increasing, but there is a need for detailed information regarding working practices to inform future workforce planning; this will inform the need for increasing training numbers.