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DENTAL THERAPISTS' PROFESSIONAL ROLE AND POSSIBLE FUTURES WITHIN THE
MALAYSIAN DENTAL WORKFORCE
NMRR-18-3736-45157

Noor Azhani Z, Norintan AM, Muhd-Firdaus CM

Introduction: The Malaysian Dental Act 2018 has recently superseded the Dental Act
1971. Under this Act, dental therapists are required to register under the Therapist
Division, are allowed to work at the private practice, and treat a person up to the age of
18 years old under direct supervision of dentist. It is important to assess the perceptions
among essential stakeholders with regards these changes and how it affects the future
dental therapists’ workforce. Objectives: To explore the dental therapist future workforce
dynamics across sectors (public-private) in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: In Phase 1,
three parallel quantitative surveys were conducted using validated self-administered
questionnaires. Descriptive, univariate and multivariate analyses were undertaken using
SPSS Version 20. The findings in Phase 1 were integrated with relevant data to model the
supply, need and demand in a System Dynamic (SD) tool using Vensim Version 7.3.5 from
a baseline scenario in 2015 to the projected year of 2030. Four exploratory scenarios were
then modelled to explore the implications of working delegation and privatisation within
the Malaysian dental workforce. Results: Majority (>90%) of dental therapists had high
job motivation with total mean score of 5.9 ± 0.51. Almost one-quarter felt dissatisfied
with their pay rate (24.2%) and promotion opportunity (20.5%). 87.6% expected to stay
longer in the dental professional and 8.3% of them had the intention to leave the
government sector for private sector. Those who foresaw working in the private sector
within the next five years were 4.14 times more likely to have the intention to leave than
those who preferred to stay in the public. Private dentists’ attitude towards the
employment of dental therapists at the private settings was low (15.5%) and it is
significantly related to their ownership type (P = 0.01). The main perceived barriers were
cost (69.5%) and perceived lack of knowledge/skills among dental therapists (52%).
Finally, SD modelling simulation for baseline scenario shows a potential for oversupply of
public dental therapists and private dentists by year 2025 while a potential of undersupply
for public dentists throughout the simulation period. The multiple scenarios could range
from a shortfall of total public practitioners and surplus of private practitioners by the
year 2030. Conclusion: This study highlights the perceptions on the Therapist Division
stipulated in the Dental Act 2018 among different stakeholders that can be used as a
reference source to the oral health policymakers in managing human resources. Findings
portrayed that by increasing dental therapists’ administrative and promotion roles within
the private settings has the potential to absorb the potential oversupply at the private
sectors in the future and this scenario shows the optimum utilization of the entire dental
workforce in Malaysia.

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