---
title: "What Is Dental staffing? Dental Practice Glossary"
description: "The work of finding and placing temporary or permanent team members for dental offices, including planning for coverage when a hygienist or assistant position is..."
url: https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-staffing
publisher: Copeland Consulting Services
email: drcopeland@joncopelanddds.com
contact: https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/contact
---

Team and HR

# Dental staffing

The work of finding and placing temporary or permanent team members for dental offices, including planning for coverage when a hygienist or assistant position is open.

Dental staffing covers how offices fill roles on their teams. It includes hiring permanent staff, using temporary help and planning coverage. The ADA Health Policy Institute reports that vacant positions in dental assisting and dental hygiene have reduced dental practice capacity by an estimated 10% nationally.

A 2021 ADA News report on an HPI poll found 35.8% of owner dentists were recruiting dental assistants and 28.8% were seeking dental hygienists. Staffing needs tie to the wider [workforce shortage](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/workforce-shortage).

Offices may use their own hiring through [dental recruiting](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-recruiting) or short-term help from a [dental temp](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-temp). Employment law applies to each approach. This entry gives a general definition and describes no service.

[Next stepPractice consulting with Dr. Copeland](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/contact?topic=consulting)

## Related terms

-   [Dental recruiting](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-recruiting)
-   [Dental temp](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-temp)
-   [Workforce shortage](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/workforce-shortage)
-   [Dental team](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/glossary/dental-team)

## Sources

1.  [ADA Health Policy Institute, Dental workforce shortages: Data to Navigate Today's Labor Market](https://www.ada.org/-/media/project/ada-organization/ada/ada-org/files/resources/research/hpi/dental_workforce_shortages_labor_market.pdf)
2.  [ADA News, Understaffed and ready to hire, dentists face applicant shortages](https://adanews.ada.org/ada-news/2021/june/dentists-face-applicant-shortages-as-they-emerge-from-covid-19-pandemic/)

## Talk with Dr. Copeland

[Contact Dr. Copeland](https://joncopeland.multisites.ai/contact)[Email](mailto:drcopeland@joncopelanddds.com)