Promoted by the Order of Dentists (OMD), the study “Diagnosis of the Dentist Profession 2022” paints “a worrying portrait of the precariousness that exists in dentistry”.

In 2022, of the 3,438 dentists who responded to the survey, 6.6% indicated that they practiced their profession abroad. Of these, 56.2% emigrated after working in Portugal.

“Unsatisfactory income”

The main reasons given for working abroad are unsatisfactory income in Portugal (58.9%), the devaluation of the profession (58.9%), the search for a better quality of life (53%), not having a stable salary ( 49.3%) and not having an employment contract (32.4%), according to the study.

Most dentists chose to practice in France (36.5%), followed by the United Kingdom (12.8%) and Switzerland (8.2%), where they have better salaries and shorter hours.

According to the study, 51% have a gross monthly income above 3,000 euros abroad, while in Portugal only 11.9% of dentists earn a similar income.

Also abroad, only 0.6% of those earn less than 1,000 euros, while in Portugal this percentage increases to 7.3%.

In terms of working hours, in Portugal almost half of dentists work more than five days a week, contrary to what happens abroad. “The number (53.4%) of those who do not want to return to practice in Portugal is therefore symptomatic”, says the OMD.

For OMD president Miguel Pavão, “Portugal needs to stop, think and decide” if it wants to continue wasting talent.

Responsibility

“All of us, who have responsibility for training the next generations, have to answer: do we invest in training excellent professionals for what and for whom? To export them? These questions apply both to teaching dentistry and to other areas”, argues Miguel Pavão in a statement.

The majority of dentists (60.9%) work in clinics or other people's offices. Of those who work in the private sector, 61.1% have variable monthly income (in 91.6% of cases it varies depending on a percentage of treatments carried out).

Only 3.7% worked in a hospital or health center in the public or social sector. Of these, 49.5% said they were on green receipts, hired directly by the Regional Health Administrations (27.4%) or through intermediary companies (22.1%), and 29.2% were integrated as Senior Technicians of the General Regime .