Employment prospects in dentistry.

While the employment projections by the Department of Labor do not identify specific changes in delivery patterns for dental care (e.g., independent dental hygiene practice), they do suggest models with some modifications to traditional practice arrangements (e.g., retail dentistry). But if we may assume that the dramatic changes in the last ten years in the delivery of dental services are any indication of the developments in the next decade, then the resultant system will bear little resemblance to the world of dentistry to which many older practitioners nostalgically cling. But from the perspective of dental employees, the combination of 1) the Department of Labor projections for increases in the number of job opportunities for auxiliaries through the next decade, and 2) a decrease in the production of the number of dental hygienist and dental auxiliary graduates, portends a favorable employment market.