We just wrapped our virtual Growth Forum, titled “What Do We Do With the OPA?”, and the dental hygienist shortage was at the center of nearly every conversation. Almost a hundred people registered, representing 10 to 12 states, including several where OPA legislation has already passed or is well underway.
We ran a couple of live polls during the session, and the results were revealing. Fifty percent of attendees said their hygiene department is fully staffed right now, while 35 percent said no, and that they’re genuinely struggling. That lines up closely with the ADA Health Policy Institute’s Q2 2026 survey, where 36 percent of dentists said they’re actively trying to hire a dental hygienist. Of those, 84 percent described the search as difficult. However you slice the data, the shortage is real and it’s affecting practices coast to coast.
That’s exactly why the OPA conversation has picked up so much momentum this year. We talked through whether a true dental hygiene shortage exists or whether it’s more about distribution and burnout, and what this new legislation could mean for where our profession goes next. For practices curious about the Oral Preventive Assistant role, the bigger question isn’t whether assisted hygiene is available. It’s whether your department is actually ready for it.
Before adding any new role, you need clear hygiene department benchmarks already in place, including production per hour, open time percentage, and diagnosis rates. Assisted hygiene only works well when your existing hygiene scheduling is solid, with reduced open time and a functioning pre-booking system already supporting the schedule. Without that foundation, adding staff just adds cost without fixing the underlying hygiene productivity problem.
The same is true for your clinical protocols. If you’re going to bring an OPA into the mix, your team needs a written perio protocol everyone is already calibrated around. Practices that create a perio program before expanding their team see far more consistency, because new roles inherit the systems you already have, not the gaps. This also affects how you manage hygiene wages profitably, since compensation decisions only make sense once production and protocols are aligned.
We also talked candidly about the conversations owners need to have with their teams before making any changes. What does this legislation mean for current hygienists’ roles? How do you introduce an OPA without it feeling like a threat to existing staff? These aren’t small questions, and they deserve real thought before you move forward.
If you want a fuller look at this conversation, we’re sharing the recording link for a limited time. Watch it here.
Join us for our next Growth Forum on November 17 you can register using this link, where we’ll keep working through what OPA legislation means for hygiene departments like yours.
