The chances of getting a job as a dental therapist are very good. The number of dental therapists working in New Zealand has slowly risen during the past 10 years. According to the New Zealand Dental Council, there are now 685 practicing dental therapists.

There is a shortage of dental therapists throughout school and community dental services. The shortage is worst in Auckland and Wellington, because they have more pre-school and school-aged children.

The main reason for the shortage is that fewer people are training to be dental therapists. This is mainly because there are fewer dental therapy training programmes than in the past – and so fewer training places available. This has caused the average age of dental therapists to rise, and it is now 49.  The shortage of dental therapists is likely to worsen as these therapists reach retirement age.

At the same time, the “baby blip” of the 1990s means there are more children in need of dental services. Rising birth rates in the past few years mean that this increased demand is likely to continue for some time.

Most dental therapists work in the school and community dental services. A small but growing number work in private practice, either contracting out their services to a dentist, or working in a private dental therapy practices.

Dental therapist jobs in the public sector are available throughout New Zealand.

Jobs in the private sector are less common and are more likely to be confined to the main centres, where larger populations make private dental therapy practices more viable.

Changes to the way dental therapists are trained will offer them many more career options. Both the University of Otago and Auckland University of Technology now offer dual-qualification oral health degrees. Graduates will be qualified as both dental therapists and dental hygienists.

The first group of these new trainees will graduate from Auckland University of Technology at the end of 2008, and from the University of Otago at the end of 2009. These graduates will be able to work exclusively as dental therapists or dental hygienists, or do a combination of both jobs. They will also be able to:

• work in the public sector
• work for one or more private dental practices
• set up their own private practices.