According to the Health Policy Institute of the American Dental Association (ADA), only 60% of dentists surveyed in Q1 2026 reported having enough dental hygienists in their practice. Among those who had recently hired for them, 91% described the process as very or extremely challenging, and the dental hygienist shortage isn’t helping.
For practices affected by this shortage, finding qualified candidates can take months, which is an amount of time not all dentists can afford because patients still need preventive care. So, what can you do to keep your practice running while you’re still trying to hire?
How Does the Dental Hygienist Shortage Affect Your Practice?
Suppose your dental practice has three hygienists working on a full-time basis. If one of them leaves without a replacement, you could lose roughly a third of your hygiene appointment capacity, resulting in added pressure on your remaining staff, fewer available appointments, and longer patient wait times.
Some patients may be willing to wait, especially those who have been coming to your practice for years. However, others might end up looking for another dental office because they prefer to have their appointments sooner.
This can put your practice in a difficult position. You don’t want to turn patients away, but asking your remaining hygienists to accommodate more appointments than they can reasonably handle isn’t a sustainable solution either.
What Can Dental Practice Owners Do While Hiring?
Although recruiting another hygienist may be your long-term solution, there are several adjustments you can make while waiting for the right candidate.
1. Review Your Existing Hygiene Schedule
Your existing appointment scheduling process may have worked well when your practice had enough staff. But with the ongoing dental hygienist shortage, the same approach may no longer work as effectively. You may have days where your hygienists are fully booked and others where they aren’t as busy.
For this reason, you should look at how your appointments are scheduled throughout the week. If certain days are always busier than others, you may offer patients alternative appointment slots instead of filling in the same days.
Moreover, you should also take into account the different types of hygiene appointments your practice is handling. For example, periodontal maintenance appointments typically need more time than a routine preventive visit. Your team should identify how much time each type of appointment requires so you can schedule and adjust appointments better.
2. Prioritize Patients Based on Their Clinical Needs
When you have fewer hygiene appointments available, you may need to determine which patients should be accommodated sooner. However, this shouldn’t necessarily depend on who calls your office first.
For example, a patient undergoing periodontal maintenance may need to return at a different interval than someone who only requires routine preventive care. Your clinical team should determine the appropriate timing based on each patient’s oral health condition and treatment recommendations.
Once these recommendations have been established, your administrative staff can coordinate appointments accordingly. If a patient cannot be accommodated within the recommended timeframe, the concern should be referred back to the appropriate clinical professional rather than leaving your front desk to make that decision.
3. Delegate Responsibilities That Don’t Require a Hygienist
When you’re short-staffed, it’s understandable to have everyone help with whatever needs to be done. However, having your hygienists handle administrative responsibilities on top of their clinical workload may not be the best use of their time.
Consider tasks such as confirming appointments, responding to scheduling inquiries, updating patient information, and coordinating cancellations. While these responsibilities still need to be handled, they don’t necessarily require someone with a dental hygienist’s qualifications. Instead, you can assign them to your administrative staff, allowing your hygienists to concentrate on responsibilities that require their clinical expertise.
Of course, clinical decisions should remain with appropriately qualified professionals. For instance, while an administrative team member can contact patients who are due for their next appointment, determining when those patients should return is still a clinical responsibility.
4. Make Better Use of Your Patient Recall List
Even with fewer hygienists available, your practice still needs to keep track of patients who are due for their next preventive visit. However, sending reminders to everyone on your recall list without considering your current appointment availability could create additional problems for your front desk.
Instead, review your recall list alongside your hygiene schedule. This allows your staff to identify patients who are due for an appointment while making sure your practice has the capacity to accommodate them.
You could also maintain a separate list of patients who have expressed interest in earlier appointments. For instance, someone who’s already scheduled three weeks from now might be willing to come in sooner if another patient cancels.
Consider assigning someone to monitor cancellations and contact patients who may be available to take those openings. This can help your practice avoid leaving appointment slots unused when patients are already waiting to be seen.
5. Consider More Flexible Staffing Arrangements
If you’re struggling to accommodate patient demand, hiring another full-time hygienist isn’t necessarily your only option. Depending on what’s available in your area, you could consider temporary or part-time clinical coverage while continuing your search for a permanent employee.
For instance, if your practice receives significantly more appointment requests on certain days, bringing in a part-time hygienist during those periods may help reduce your backlog.
You may also want to reconsider the employment arrangements you’re currently offering. Are your compensation and benefits competitive with other practices in your area? Could you accommodate applicants who prefer working fewer days each week?
These adjustments won’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll find another hygienist immediately, but they may help you reach candidates who wouldn’t otherwise consider your existing job offer.
| Area | Recommended Adjustment | Intended Benefit |
| Hygiene scheduling | Redistribute appointments based on available staff and procedure requirements | Make better use of existing appointment slots |
| Patient prioritization | Schedule patients according to clinical recommendations | Accommodate patients with more time-sensitive needs |
| Administrative workload | Assign nonclinical tasks to administrative staff | Protect hygienists’ clinical time |
| Patient recalls | Coordinate recall outreach with appointment availability | Fill suitable openings without overbooking |
| Staffing arrangements | Explore temporary or part-time hygienist coverage | Increase clinical capacity while recruiting |
How Can a Dental Virtual Assistant Help During a Hygienist Shortage?
Suppose your front desk is already occupied with answering calls, checking patients in, and handling insurance concerns. Even if you’ve decided to delegate some administrative responsibilities away from your hygienists, your in-person staff may not necessarily have the time to take on additional work.
This is where a dental virtual assistant (VA) can help.
Depending on what your practice needs, a VA can fill in a virtual dental receptionist role and handle tasks like appointment requests, sending confirmation texts, and maintaining patient recall lists. These responsibilities are typically performed by in-person staff, but because they don’t require a physical presence to be completed, a VA with the appropriate training and resources can fulfill them just as well.
However, you should make sure your VA understands how your practice works before delegating tasks to them. For example, if a patient calls with a clinical concern, your VA should know who they should escalate the call to instead of providing advice beyond their scope.
If you establish clear expectations and processes, a dental VA can help keep administrative workload manageable so that your hygienists can dedicate their focus toward taking care of your patients.
Support Your Dental Team While You Hire
Finding another qualified dental hygienist may take time, but that doesn’t mean your practice has to wait until then to address its administrative workload.
At My Mountain Mover, we help dental practices find qualified virtual assistants they can start interviewing within 48 hours of their first call with us. These VAs can support your administrative operations while your in-office team focuses on patient care.
Book a 10-minute discovery call to learn how My Mountain Mover can support your practice while you hire.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Is There a Dental Hygienist Shortage?
Several factors contribute to the dental hygienist shortage, including difficulties recruiting qualified candidates, compensation expectations, and differences between the working arrangements employers offer and those applicants prefer. The severity of these challenges may also vary depending on your location.
How Can Dental Practices Manage With Fewer Hygienists?
Dental practices can review their existing schedules, prioritize appointments based on clinical needs, explore temporary staffing arrangements, and delegate appropriate administrative responsibilities.
Can a Dental Virtual Assistant Replace a Dental Hygienist?
No. Dental hygienists and virtual assistants fulfill different functions. Hygienists take care of patients while virtual assistants support that through appointment scheduling, patient reminders, recall outreach, and other nonclinical responsibilities.
