More dentists are urgently needed. About 220 dental students now graduate each year, while 41.5 percent of the roughly 10,000 dentists now there are expected to retire in the next 10 years.
To meet the shortage, there should be 375 places for training, says the Capacity Authority, which advises the Cabinet on the number of places needed for various medical courses. There are now 243.
very expensive
Sources say the government does not want to expand to this extent. The main reason: increasing the number of training places is expensive, and the money is not there. Thus the alternative is to shorten the period of dental training from six to five years.
The House of Representatives has also requested this solution before. So pleased VVD Member of Parliament Jacqueline van den Hel. “If this is true, then I am very happy, because the VVD has been asking for it for a long time. This way we get more dentists faster, which we need so much.”
lower cost
The idea is that shortening the training will make it less costly per site. This means that more students can be trained for the same amount of money; 50 additional students expected each year. Such a shorter course is permitted according to European training requirements and is already in place in various countries around us.
The government would also like to consider a better regional distribution of dentists. The shortage is particularly large in the provinces of Flevoland and Zeeland. Van den Hel hopes to get additional training in Rotterdam: “It is known that in places where people are trained, people stay longer. So if you are trained in the southwestern region of the Netherlands, where there is currently such a big shortage, we hope for more Dentists continue to work there.”
The actual date is still unclear
It is not yet known when the training period will actually be shortened. The Cabinet would first like to speak to the dental association KNMT.
In addition, it is being examined whether the money expended by reducing the number of training places in medicine can be used in part for a further increase in the number of places in dentistry.