Why aren’t there more dental schools in Canada?

[Chaxon]

Considering it’s super competitive and all the reciprocal agreements with other countries.

[Human Being]

Honesty not too many people apply to dental school so there isn't really a demand for it, and if you look at the numbers dentistry is not that competitive when compared to medicine. For example UofT's dental school received 569 applications in 2017 and sent out 134 offers of admission, that's a 24% acceptance rate. In contrast, UofT's medical school received around 3000 applications in 2017 and has a class size of around 260 (I am being generous with these numbers here), that's a 8% acceptance rate. So if anything we need more med schools in Canada not dental schools. 

[JohnGrisham]

18 minutes ago, Human Being said:

Honesty not too many people apply to dental school so there isn't really a demand for it, and if you look at the numbers dentistry is not that competitive when compared to medicine. For example UofT's dental school received 569 applications in 2017 and sent out 134 offers of admission, that's a 24% acceptance rate. In contrast, UofT's medical school received around 3000 applications in 2017 and has a class size of around 260 (I am being generous with these numbers here), that's a 8% acceptance rate. So if anything we need more med schools in Canada not dental schools. 

We dont "need" more of either. 

[member_225]

4 hours ago, Human Being said:

Honesty not too many people apply to dental school so there isn't really a demand for it, and if you look at the numbers dentistry is not that competitive when compared to medicine. For example UofT's dental school received 569 applications in 2017 and sent out 134 offers of admission, that's a 24% acceptance rate. In contrast, UofT's medical school received around 3000 applications in 2017 and has a class size of around 260 (I am being generous with these numbers here), that's a 8% acceptance rate. So if anything we need more med schools in Canada not dental schools. 

western dental school class of 2019 had 56 spots for 591 applicants giving it a 9.5% acceptance rate. Toronto's rate is an exception if anything due to them raising the number of spots available recently.  

[HopefulDDS]

The number of professional schools and seats in them should not be determined by how many people want to go into the profession aka number of applicants. Rather, the number should be determined by supply in demand aka how many dentists do we need? Your comment on the reciprocal agreements with other countries is exactly why we don't need more in Canada. Canadians are getting their education elsewhere and practicing back in Canada. Thus, there is no demand for more dental school seats within Canada.

[Walcott]

first, it's already quite saturated in the busy parts of the country. im not sure how much influence the Canadian dental association has on the creation of new schools, but since these associations are probably funded heavily by practicing dentists themselves, there's no incentive for them to promote the creation of new schools that would only increase saturation and hurt their own bottom line. if anything, the canadian dental association probably pressures large universities against it, instead. 

second, starting a dental school is very, very expensive. i can imagine the total equipment costs to outfit labs, practice chairs, tools... it probably totals in the many, many millions. it (kind of) reflects the super high tuition costs that dental students pay. either way, it would require universities across Canada to really assess whether it's a financially wise decision or not - and I bet that even the schools that could afford it wouldn't be in such good financial standing after creating an entire dental school. just my two cents. 

[Chaxon]

With all the for profit medical schools in the Caribbean I was thinking they’d also have some dental schools like that. My thoughts were rather than having Canadian students enroll in expensive overseas programs, they should have schools here keeping the money in Canada.

And with regards to saturation, is there a cap on how many foreign trained dentists come into Canada? Surely if the number if seats are determined by supply and demand then there should be a cap on how many foreign educated dentists are coming in.