On the 19th of May 2021, the ABN AMRO (a Dutch bank) published an interesting report where they examine dental care in the Netherlands. The report is called: ‘Mondzorg in beeld’, which roughly translates into: ‘Oral care: a clear picture’.
This report mentions different kinds of aspect of the Dutch dental world, from the amount of active dentists to how many people visit the dentist. When you’re a dentists from another European country who’s interested in starting a new career in the Netherlands, these facts will give you a good image of the Dutch dental world.
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Percentage of female dentists
About 46% of dentists working in the Netherlands are women. On the work floor, the ratio between men and women is therefore pretty equal. However, if we look at the percentage of women who are currently studying dentistry, we see a different division: about 69% of dentistry students are female!
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Dental clinics in the Netherlands
There are 4725 dental clinics in Holland and about 10% of these clinics are part of a chain. It’s interesting to note that the number of dental clinics has been decreasing over the last few years, but the size of dental clinics is increasing. The average amount of treatment chairs in a clinic is currently 2,8 chairs per clinic. There are less and less solo clinics with only one treatment chair.
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Dental visits
About 80% of the population visits the dentists yearly. On average, people in the Netherlands visit the dentists once every 8 months. On top of that, 36% of all patients of 12 years and older visit the dental hygienist yearly. However, 1 out of 5 children in the Netherlands doesn’t visit the dentist at all. This is a big concern among dentists, and there are different initiatives to try and reach these children.
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Retirement
Each year, 300 dentists are retiring. This is more than the amount of dentists entering the labor market. It’s also expected that 40% of all dentists will retire in the next 10 years. This is one of the reasons that there is a shortage of dentists in the Netherlands.
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Active dentists in the Netherlands
There are 9502 active dentists in Holland. About 210 dentists enter the Dutch labor market each year. In 2020, there were 136 foreign dentists who registered in the BIG-register. Each year, there are between 100-200 foreign dentists who start a new career in the Netherlands. The Dutch dentistry world also partly depends on foreign dentists due to the shortage of dentists.
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Insurance
Dental care is free for children up to 18 years old. For adults, it’s not included in basic healthcare coverage, and you need supplementary insurance for dental care. 79% of all patients have this supplementary insurance. The average turnover per patient is 250,- euros.
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Dentist ratio
Nationwide the dentist ratio is 1.820 inhabitants per dentist. However, there are noticeable differences per province. Noord-Holland has 1.350 inhabitants per dentist, so there is less shortage in this part of the country. Zeeland has 2.505 inhabitants per dentist, and the shortage is therefore a lot higher in this region.
There are definitely some interesting statistics in this report, and some of these factors will influence how the future of the Dutch dentistry world will look like. The amount of dentists entering the Dutch labor market and the amount of dentists that will retire, both have an influence on the shortage of dentists in the Netherlands, and how this will continue in the future.
Dentists with a foreign diploma entering the Dutch labor market is therefore a win-win situation for Dutch dentistry.
Are you interested in knowing more about working in the Netherlands as a dentist? Don’t hesitate to send us your CV or contact our recruiters!
Source: Mondzorg in Beeld, rapport van de ABN AMRO (https://www.abnamro.nl/nl/media/abnamro-medici-brancheinformatie-mondzorg-2021_tcm16-110910.pdf)
