Reimagining Dental Education: Consensus Recommendations for Strengthening Faculty Pathways and Academic Career Success

BACKGROUND: Since the beginning of the 21st century, national reports have warned that dental education is not recruiting and retaining enough oral health faculty, even as student bodies grow and become more diverse and the professions increase the emphasis on oral health's intersection with overall health. The faculty who prepare future clinicians and scientists are in short supply, and this shortage compromises the quality of dental education and ultimately impacts the quality of care delivered to our communities. OBJECTIVE: To develop consensus recommendations to increase and sustain dental faculty for the oral health professions, addressing financial, debt, and pathway barriers to recruiting and retaining oral health faculty while strengthening research and scholarship. CONSENSUS PROCESS: Our group (Working Group 3) consisted of eight participants, including dental school deans, clinician-educators, clinician-scientists, national and federal leaders, and a summit scholar. The group reviewed national reports, peer-reviewed literature, and program-specific evidence before and throughout three facilitated working sessions. Consensus was defined as unanimous endorsement of each recommendation following structured deliberation, with no formal objections. RECOMMENDATIONS: The group advanced five recommendations: faculty loan-repayment programs, earlier admission pathways, a public and professional awareness campaign, deliberate recruitment through existing fellowships and federal programs, and standardized accreditation expectations for faculty development. The public awareness campaign and the faculty loan-repayment program were prioritized as near-term and intermediate priorities, respectively, with success metrics and accountability anchored in annual reporting and a first review in 2028. CONCLUSIONS: The academic career pathway can be improved and faculty better supported. Aligning the profession's stated priorities with meaningful financial and structural incentives would strengthen faculty recruitment and retention and sustain the workforce advancing oral health education and public health.