Recently the Commission has reported dentistry as a sector under “severe shortage”.
This has not been endorsed by the Council of Ministers.
1-Commission’s assessment on dentistry. According to its report on the recognition of professional qualifications (Feb.2026), the Commission lists dentistry among the professions with « severe shortages » in Europe (p.8 of the report):
“The professions benefitting from automatic recognition —whether based on minimum training requirements or professional experience— are among those where severe shortages are reported. (…) nursing professionals, generalist and specialist medical practitioners, pharmacists and dentists are ranked among the most widespread shortage occupations by number of countries and prevalence of high severity.”
Its source? A 2024 EURES Report on Labour shortages and surpluses based on countries’ notification.
But in this reporting no difference is made between shortage at national level and local level in medical deserts or under-served areas. A confusion exists.
2-OECD’s warning about shortage’s calculation. As warned by the OECD, « Despite the widespread concern about workforce shortages in most EU countries, there is a scarcity of robust data to accurately quantify the shortages of various categories of health workers at both national and subnational levels. ». Such is the case in dentistry.
« Conventional economic theory suggests that unfilled or hard-to-fill job vacancies are a key indicator of shortages, but very few countries routinely collect and report data on this indicator. »(OECD, Health at a Glance, 2024, p.29).
3-Stable dental workforce in Europe between 2010 & 2022. Actually, instead of a decrease, the overall number of dentists in the EU has shown a modest increase. Dentist availability grew from 0.7 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2010 to 0.8 in 2022 (source : eurostat).
4-Council’s assessment of health professions under strain. In its « Recommendation on human capital in the EU » adopted on 9 March, the Council does not report dentistry as a sector facing « high EU-wide labour and skills shortages ».
The Council lists 5 health professions but not dental practitioners:
« In 2024, the most widespread shortage occupations in the EU concerned technical profiles in manufacturing and construction (including welders and flame cutters, building and related electricians, plumbers and pipe fitters, metal sheet workers), health professions (nursing professionals, generalist and specialist medical practitioners, healthcare assistants and physiotherapists, with an estimated shortage of 1.2 million doctors, nurses and midwives in 2022 in the EU). »(para.9).
Among the countries for which data are available for both years, the number of dentistry graduates increased or remained the same between 2013 and 2023 in all but 3 EU countries (it fell in Czechia by 0.4 dentistry graduates per 100 000 inhabitants, in Estonia by 0.3 dentistry graduates per 100 000 inhabitants and in Lithuania by 0.2 dentistry graduates per 100 000 inhabitants).
6-Conclusion : assessing national needs. “Addressing shortages of different categories of health workers requires a multi-pronged strategy targeting both supply-side policies (e.g. expanding education, increasing retention) and demand-side policies (e.g. making more effective use of the health workforce by changing skill-mix and supporting an effective use of technologies).
The optimal policy mix will depend on each country’s specific circumstances. However, in all cases, a long-term, comprehensive workforce strategy is needed to ensure an adequate supply of health workers to meet the growing demand for health services across Europe“(OECD report Health at a Glance, 2024, p.21).
***