Hiring Dental Staff: What’s Going On With the Labor and Staffing Market?

Last updated on October 24th, 2025 at 04:06 pm

(Note: For this week’s post, we’re sharing excerpts from a recent episode (Episode 2) of MGE’s podcast, Dental Business RX from Jeff Blumberg, the COO MGE. To listen to this or other episodes, visit our site, or look us up and subscribe on Apple, Spotify.

Never in my career, which has been about 30 years in the industry, have I seen more issues with finding a hygienist, assistant, administrative staff, you name it. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about in this week’s episode of Dental Business RX…

The Statistical Reality

First off, there was a survey done by the National Federation of Independent Business… (Source:
NFIB Economic Trends).

Then we get to job openings… (Source:
BLS Job Openings Data).

We have a situation where there are more job openings than there are people looking for work…

Potential Solutions

Administrative (Front Desk) Positions

With regards to administrative positions… if I’m going to pay more for something, I’m going to expect more.

One other factor influencing all of this is inflation. The last time I looked, the CPI was up by 5.1% (Note: 5.4% in September 2021). (Source:
BLS CPI Report).

Dental Assistant

For dental assistants, we’ve been advising our clients to incentivize career growth…
Have an employment attorney draft agreements tied to training and longevity.

Hygienists

What about hygienists? We’ve seen more trouble finding hygienists than any other position…
Consider expanding your search geographically and incentivizing skills growth.

Outsourcing

There might be some limited outsourcing worth considering—like insurance collections or verification. Track performance just as you would an in-house employee.

Team Training

Once you’ve determined that someone will stay in your practice, allocate time for proper training. Group training ensures consistency and team cohesion.

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