When should a dental practice use temporary staffing?

Between running a business, treating patients, managing a team, investing in CE courses, and maintaining a family and outside life, you have enough to handle. Let's not add staffing stress on top of everything else. If you didn't know there was an easy option for coverage, you are not alone. When your team member is out on a vacation, you don't have to lose revenue. If someone is on maternity or medical leave, you don't have to reschedule patients. And if you are in between hires, temporary staffing is a great way to find your next team member. Think of it as dating before getting married.

Consider the math: when you have to cancel patients, you lose hygiene revenue for the day and potential future restorative treatment from those exams. If your office is fully booked, their next visit might not be able to be rescheduled for months, and you can lose them as a patient entirely.

Sick Days

Either you or your office manager has received that dreaded text at 5:00 or 6:00 AM letting you know that an assistant or hygienist is sick and unable to come in. Or what if you are the one under the weather, or your kids are?

With Oasis, you simply post the shift in the app, and the request sends immediate notifications to our professionals. They can apply the moment they receive the alert, which will notify you right away. All the information they need is already included in your shift post, so you are not scrambling with loose ends for a short-notice request. They already know your address, hours, and pay rate.

Vacations

Vacations do not have to affect your patients or your team. Your providers need their time off, but you do not have to close their chairs while they are gone. Keep everything running smoothly as normal, and when they return, you can keep going almost as if they never left. Your numbers will not be affected, and patients are often very receptive to temporary providers. We simply recommend giving them a heads-up that they will be seeing a different provider for the day and the reason why.

To ensure the best coverage, we recommend posting these shifts at least one month in advance, or even a few months ahead if you are able.

Maternity and Medical Leaves

When a six-to-eight-week maternity or medical leave comes up, one thing is certain: you cannot afford to close a chair for two to three months. We have multiple providers who temp part-time or full-time and can cover all or a portion of your leave. We also have dentists who have sold their practices but have not fully retired, and they are often eager to help with these long-term opportunities.

Consider the math if you leave a chair empty. If a doctor, hygienist, or assistant is out for this long, that is a minimum of 150 missed recare patients for hygiene. If it is your doctor who is out, that means missed hygiene exams and thousands of dollars lost in restorative cases.

If a provider is interested in covering your leave, we are happy to help facilitate a meet-and-greet beforehand. This ensures it is a great fit for both of you before the leave officially starts.

In-Between Hires

Using temp coverage while you are between hires is wonderful for multiple reasons. First, temporary coverage frequently leads to your next permanent hire. Professionals who are not even looking for a permanent role often fall in love with a practice and decide to take a position there. If they are actively looking, a temp shift allows both of you to ensure it is a good fit before making a commitment, giving the placement an incredibly high success rate.

Secondly, it allows you to take your time interviewing and finding the right candidate because your schedule is flowing normally with temporary coverage. Hiring quickly out of desperation can cost you significant time and money, not to mention the energy your team spends on training. If that hasty hire turns out to be a bad fit, you do not want to feel obligated to keep them around, damaging your team culture, simply because you will have no one to see patients if you let them go.

Temporary coverage is highly useful for these cases and takes the panic out of the hiring process.

Why Dental Practices Choose Oasis

A few key features shape how our platform fits seamlessly into your practice's daily workflow. First, we ensure that credentialing always matches the role. Every dentist and hygienist on our platform is thoroughly verified by license, while our dental assistants complete a detailed screening call and bring at least three years of experience to your office.

Additionally, our portal works in both directions to make scheduling easier. Sometimes you know you need help but you are not quite sure which specific days to post yet. With Oasis, verified professionals near you can ping you with their availability, allowing you to create a shift on the spot and invite them to it immediately.

Our temporary coverage for hygienists and dental assistants is well established in Charleston SC, with active and growing networks across Austin TX, Greenville SC, Nashville TN, and Central PA. We're actively expanding into Atlanta GA and Dallas TX, and we'd love to hear from practices there as we grow. Our temporary coverage for dentists is available nationwide. If you are looking for permanent recruiting, the fit varies by role and location, so we recommend a quick thirty minute call to see how we can help. The only exception is South Carolina, where we do not offer permanent recruiting and focus exclusively on temporary and temp to hire placements.

Finally, we keep everything in one place to save you time. You can post shifts, message professionals, view schedules, check profiles, manage notifications, and open support tickets all within the Oasis app or on the web. It is built for easy navigation whether you consider yourself tech savvy or not.

Take the Stress Out of Staffing

At the end of the day, running a successful dental practice is about protecting your time, your team, and your bottom line. You do not have to let unexpected sick days, planned vacations, or the long hiring process disrupt your patient care or your peace of mind. Oasis was built to take the chaos out of dental staffing by connecting you with trusted, verified professionals exactly when you need them. Whether you are planning months in advance or scrambling at six in the morning, we have you covered.