With 35 years of dental experience, Zoe Close examines how the rise in numbers of women in dentistry is likely to affect the profession as a whole.
It’s a truism to say the dental landscape has been transformed over the past 20 years.
Post-pandemic, the number of dentists leaving the NHS for private dentistry has snowballed. The days where appointments with NHS dentists were only a phone call away have now been replaced by DIY dentistry and arid dental deserts.
However, a change less noticeable to the general public has been the gender makeup of the profession. Between 2013 and 2021, the number of male dentists registered in the UK fell by 289 while during the same period the number of female dentists registered in the UK rose by 3,596.
Women are also dominating in another former bastion of male dominance – the provision of NHS care. The latest figures show there are 11,218 men registered providing some form of NHS dentistry, compared with 12,933 women. Which means the balance has tipped in favour of female NHS providers in recent years.
Drilling down further into those figures we find that 71% of women dentists are under the age of 44, whereas only 55% of male dentists are under that age, which suggests that the trend is likely to continue.
Flexibility is key
So, what’s driving this shift in the gender balance among dentists? Dentist, practice owner and BDA committee member Lauren Harrhy feels the flexibility of a dental career is very attractive to women.
‘I think that in dentistry there are opportunities for more part-time working, taking control of your own business and shaping your own day which are really attractive to working mums and working dads as well,’ she says.
‘Certainly, for women who want to have a good work life balance, we can still own our own business, shape the way our careers go, even have a portfolio career.’
Lauren also believes the fact that dentistry is a caring profession is another draw for women.
‘It’s an attractive career for women who want to take care of people,’ she suggests. ‘I like to treat my patients holistically. We talk, not just about their teeth, but their facial aesthetics and their general health too.
‘Dentistry is a profession where we can talk to people, relate to them and build relationships, which certainly suits me. And I know that lots of my female colleagues agree that it’s nice to be able to build those strong relationships. This sometimes seems to be very important more to women than to men, although I do acknowledge it’s important to both.’
Less than full-time
Alongside the gender shift is a trend that has grown in popularity since the pandemic for dentists to choose to work less than full-time (LTFT). These days, a dentist who works four-and-a-half or five days per week is rapidly becoming a rare breed. However, portents of this type of working were seen well before the COVID lockdowns, as Lauren explains.
‘About 15 years ago I wrote a paper on workforce patterns. At the time I was only looking at paediatric specialists,’ she outlines. ‘We found that overwhelmingly, female paediatric-specialist consultants would work full-time prior to maternity leave, and then return to work part-time.
‘At the time we believed that if the trend continued throughout dentistry, we would see lots more part-time working and so we would need a larger dental workforce. I believe that is true, but I feel it’s been a benefit rather than a detriment because by allowing women to do this we’ve shown that we can have a great career, run businesses and earn well.
‘While at the same time, we’ve allowed the guys to realise that they can have a work-life balance as well. It doesn’t have to be that they work seven till seven, six days a week.’
Improved productivity
Although part-time working means fewer clinical hours worked by each individual, Lauren feels productivity improves with part-time working. This change in working patterns is something she feels will alter the dental landscape considerably.
‘Dentists can be more productive sometimes working part-time,’ she suggests. ‘I think less than full-time working will continue to change the dental landscape going forward and we must plan for it.
‘Workforce planning is going to be all-important now,’ she continues. ‘We know there are changes with the NHS, as well as how many dentists and bodies we have out there providing the services. But it’s fantastic that we have dentists who are not just working themselves to the bone who are able to treat patients in the way that they really should be treated and looked after and not ending up completely burnt out and ruined.’
Not equal, yet
However, dentistry is still a long way from reaching the promised land of total equality for both sexes. As the co-chair of the BDA Equality and Diversity Committee, Lauren is acutely aware of this.
‘We’ve had some stats recently that have suggested that, even adjusting for other factors, there is still a gender pay gap,’ she reports. ‘It’s closing, but it’s still there.’
She feels there are multiple reasons for this. ‘In some cases, women feel less confident about going in and negotiating terms and pay,’ she says. ‘But there are other more quiet and unquantifiable factors to do with women being viewed as less scary that have an effect.
You often find that the nervous patients or the paediatric ones will ask to see “the lady dentist”. With these patients, you’ll be getting paid the same for them, but they might take twice as long for you to deal with them. It’s difficult to quantify how much that can affect your take home pay, but it does.
‘So, even with things seeming to be more positive, there are still drawbacks. While it’s great to know that you’re the lovely lady dentist who can deal with the nervous patients that is often not financially beneficial.’
Childcare responsibilities
One thing that still hasn’t changed, and which usually has a greater effect on women than men, is having children. Lauren feels she’s been lucky to have had total support from her husband.
‘I couldn’t do the things that I do without my husband,’ she admits. ‘We have three children and when they were preschool age, he took on so much of the primary carer role because I was at work.’ She credits his preparedness to shoulder most of the burden of childcare for her career progression. ‘If I had been married to somebody who was more traditional, I wouldn’t have been able to progress to the point that I have now.’
So, how important is it for more women to put themselves forward and take an active part in shaping dentistry? ‘I think the saying is: “If you can see it, you can be it.” This is true for any underrepresented demographic,’ she states. ‘We need trailblazers so that those coming behind can think, “They can do it, so I can do it.” Although it might sound a bit trite, I believe that it’s really important to try to be that inspiration.’
She feels she owes a debt of gratitude to the trailblazers she’s encountered. ‘There are so many women I’ve seen who were successfully owning practices or making a success of going into dental politics. I’m still friends with them now and they’ve mentored me during my career. And if it wasn’t for them, I might have thought, “Well maybe this isn’t the place for me.” So, it’s incredibly important to be visible and out there showing what we can do.’
Be Practice Plan
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With over 300 years’ dental experience in our field team, if you’re looking for a provider that has that family feel but knows a thing or two about dentistry… Be Practice Plan and get in touch. Call 01691 684165 or visit www.practiceplan.co.uk/be-practice-plan/.
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