Table 2.

Dental workforce characteristics – France, Italy, Spain, Romania and the ADVOCATE Project Countries as at 1 April 2016

Country	Working dentist numbers	Number of registered dental hygienists	Number of dentists/practice	Number of dental nurses	Number of hygienists/practice	Male:female ratio of dentists %	Practice owner private/corporate/publically funded	Dentists that graduated from another country
Denmark	4,800	1,751	Generally two or more	At least one per dentist	The majority of practices employ a dental hygienist	26/74	Often ‘large dental clinics’	480 10%
England	41,482 (UK total)	6,385 (UK)	In over 80% of practices two or more	At least one per dentist	The majority of practices employ a dental hygienist, often part-time	54/46	60% two or more practice owners (co-owners) < 20% owned by single dentist < 20% owned by companies	11,612 (UK) 28%
France	41,795	0	Generally only one	50% work without a full-time dental nurse	No dental hygienists are registered to work in France	58/42	Generally owned by the dentists who works there	1,513 4%
Germany	70,740	600 (estimate)	1–3 tendency for larger dental clinics with several dentists and specially trained dental chairside assistants to become the norm	Often two per dentist, many of whom have further training	There are fewer than 600 dental hygienists in Germany, but over 13,000 dental nurses with additional training who carry out supra-gingival scaling	Approaching 50:50 in practice 30:70 student intake	Generally owned by the dentist or dentists who work(s) there	In 2014 there were 2,163 dentists who had qualified in a country other than Germany, i.e. 3%
Hungary	5,420	2,077		In general, most Hungarian dentists work with a dental nurse	In 2010, there were 2,077 dental hygienists, but many are working as dental nurses	38/62 (2015)	Owned by one dentist or an investor	In 2017, about 1% of active Hungarian dentists qualified from another country, nearly all had a Romanian qualification
Ireland	2,828	487	One (majority)–two or more is likely in future (average 2.8 in multi-surgery practice)	Generally one per dentist	In 2016, there were 487 dental hygienists in Ireland	53/47	Mixture of corporate and non-corporate ownership	683 25%
Italy	59,324	4,000	Usually one but with visiting specialists	One per dentist		66/34	One practice owner (dentist) – 80% of all practices 10% company run – ‘dental services’	1,172 2%
Netherlands	8,827	2,850	Usually more than 1 (1.8 is the average)	Two per dentist	In 2012 there were 2,850 dental hygienists, some of whom owned their own practices	60/40		799 9%
Poland	40,116	2,260	Usually one, but sometimes with visiting specialists	In the public dental service in 2014 : 13,056 dentists and only 5,288 dental nurses	Most likely 0	25/75	Majority owned by a single practitioner (77%, 2014) or private healthcare clinics	600 1.5%
Romania	15,396	100	Generally 1, but increasing numbers of dental companies with multiple dentists	As there are 6,000 dental nurses it appears that many dentists work without dental nurses	Most likely 0	32/68	Owned by a single practitioner	485 3%
Scotland	414,820 (UK)	6,385 (UK)	In the majority of practices two or more	At least one per dentist	The majority of practices employ a dental hygienist, often part-time	54/56	Two practice owners (co-owners) < 20% owned by single dentist < 20% owned by companies	11,612 (UK) 28%
Spain	34,200	13,200	Usually one but sometimes with visiting specialists	At least one per dentist	The majority of practices employ a dental hygienist, often part-time	48/52	Generally owned by one private dentist (most cases but decreasing), increasing number of company operated (with 6–10 dental units per practice)	5,879 16%

Data sources: answers from respondents in this current study plus Council of European Chief Dental Officers database www.cecdo.org.