The reality of dentists in Portugal

At the end of last year, the Order of Dentists (OMD) registered 10,653 members with active registration, surpassing the 10,000 barrier for the first time.

Portugal has almost 10 thousand dentists working across the country

According to the conclusions of the study “The Order Numbers”, there are around 1,500 dentists practicing exclusively abroad and more than 9 thousand in Portugal. Only 327 work simultaneously in Portugal and in another foreign country, and 847 of those registered do not practice the profession.

Study – “The Numbers of Order”

Published annually, the OMD study outlines the profile of the dentist profession in Portugal. This year's edition underwent some changes in terms of methodology to be able to reflect the current reality of the profession.

"In recent years we have found that a statistically significant number of dentists have chosen to maintain their active registration with the OMD even when working abroad. Therefore, from this edition onwards, and with data referring to December 2018, the number of certificates awarded until the end of each year will be counted, distinguishing the concept of a dentist with active registration with the OMD, from that of a dentist practicing the profession in Portugal", explains Orlando Monteiro da Silva, President of the Order of Dentists

Therefore, for a better understanding of the representativeness of these data, it is important to calculate the ratio of dentists practicing in Portugal per number of inhabitants

Portugal above the value recommended by the World Health Organization

One dentist for every 1058 inhabitants

What is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) is one dentist for every 1500 to 2 thousand inhabitants, and Portugal stands out with a much higher average. At the end of 2018, there was one dentist for every 1058 inhabitants.

Heterogeneous geographic distribution

The geographical distribution, on the other hand, falls short of the ideal scenario. Taking into account your professional address, the study carried out by OMD was able to conclude that there are regions with a ratio below that recommended:

• Porto Metropolitan Area – 668
• Viseu Dão-Lafões – 806
• Coimbra Region – 814
• Lands of Trás-os-Montes – 829
• Cávado – 926
• Lisbon Metropolitan Area – 940

The regions of Alentejo, Lezíria Central and Oeste are those with the lowest numbers, reaching values ​​such as one dentist for every 2,875 inhabitants.

Who are these dentists? Women, Portuguese, 39 years old.

Data analysis goes into detail and shows that, last year, of the 686 registered dentists, around 60% were women, the average age was 39 years old and 74% were up to 45 years old.

Women 60.2%

Men 39.8%

And nationality?

There are, in total, 46 nationalities of dentists registered with the order in Portugal. However, active members of Portuguese nationality represent more than 90% of its total universe. The remaining 10% are: Brazilians (498), Italians (177) and Spanish – (138)

Portuguese 90.2%

Brazilians 4.7%

Italians 1.7%

Spanish 1.3%

Other 2.3%

"The professional registration number has nothing to do with the number of active dentists, which in turn do not correspond to the number of dentists practicing in Portugal. There are three different realities." Orlando Monteiro da Silva, president of the OMD

And the future of the class?

It has always been said that the future is young people. Therefore, we can say that the future is to further increase the number of dentists in Portugal.

Despite the decrease in the number of students entering higher education, in Portugal, compared to the previous year, the number of dental medicine students grew by 5.5%. And this number is strongly supported by the 37.5% increase in foreign students.

The international recognition of dental medicine teaching in Portugal has been increasing and this is reflected in the choice of our country to provide basic training. With the expectation of returning to their country of origin, after graduating, we can conclude that, despite the high numbers, future foreign dentists undergoing training in Portugal do not, therefore, constitute a threat to employability in the national sector.

Orlando Monteiro da Silva highlights, in this sense, the recent signing of a strategic action document between OMD and the country's seven dental medicine faculties: “It is a document that addresses issues such as the curricular restructuring of integrated master's degrees, professional opportunities and postgraduate training, which will allow considering training supply and demand parameters with regard to employability, particularly the specificities of the dynamics of the Portuguese market”.

As active agents in the sector, we will continue to be attentive to the reality of dentistry and dedicated to creating the best solutions to creatively respond to best medical practices.

Source: OMD

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