The CDA calls dental-school training "at risk" — and the fund behind those clinics is closed to new proposals
The Canadian Dental Association's first full assessment of the dental care plan carries a chapter on dental-school clinics, rates their training "at risk," and asks Ottawa to restore the training fund that Health Canada has closed to new proposals.
On 6 October the Canadian Dental Association released From Coverage to Care, its first full assessment of the Canadian Dental Care Plan, and presented it at a breakfast on Parliament Hill. 12
The paper measures the program against goals the association set in 2023. Its scorecard rates five measures achieved, two mostly achieved, nine with limited progress and three not achieved, all as of June 2026. 3 It ends with more than 30 recommendations, grouped under patient care, program design and oral health strategy. 1
Most of the paper concerns patients in private dental offices. One chapter concerns the clinics where dentists learn, under the heading "Impact of the CDCP on Dental Education and Clinical Training," and the executive summary rates that subject "At risk." 4
What the paper says has happened to teaching clinics
A dental school clinic trades appointment time for price. Patients accept longer visits, and in return students get the crowns, dentures and root canals they must complete before graduation. 4
The CDCP changed that exchange. As private offices take CDCP patients, people who once relied on a school clinic can find faster care closer to home, often for less money. For those patients, that is the program working. The same movement pulls cases away from the teaching clinics that need them. 4
The evidence varies by school. Some report little change in new-patient applications. Others describe trouble keeping chairs filled. In 2025 several schools saw patient volumes fall, most sharply in their emergency clinics, and preliminary 2026 numbers point back up. 4
One projection missed. Dental schools expected more patients from households earning $70,000 to $90,000, because the CDCP's co-payment is lowest for them. The ten school clinics report instead that most of their patients earn under $70,000, and that some of those patients cannot afford treatment the plan leaves uncovered. 4
Two provincial reports in the paper's annexes sharpen the picture. Manitoba's dental association told the CDA that the University of Manitoba's College of Dentistry has lost a large share of its teaching-clinic patients, and it raises the prospect of students graduating with less clinical preparation. Alberta's association reports the opposite at the University of Alberta's student clinic, which has largely kept its patients. 4
Paperwork adds a second cost. Where a school's own systems cannot file CDCP claims electronically, staff submit them by courier, on top of the eligibility checks and preauthorization requests the plan requires. 4
The fund that has been holding the line
Schools have covered the gap with their own budgets and with short-term federal money. That money is the Oral Health Access Fund, created in Budget 2023 with $250 million over three years and $75 million a year ongoing, in two streams. Stream 1 was written for this problem: it pays oral health training institutions to close gaps in how students treat underserved patients and to keep enough hands-on procedures in the curriculum. 5
Health Canada has announced more than $43 million for 35 projects under the fund. 6 Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry holds up to $2.9 million of it, split between a one-year project to reach uninsured patients and a three-year project that moves student training into community sites across southwestern Ontario and Moose Factory. 7 A June 2026 round added $1.6 million for a mobile clinic and an adapted treatment room at Collège La Cité in Ottawa. 6 The paper notes that many first-round projects also paid for free care inside school clinics. 4
Then the fund stopped taking applications. Health Canada's program page tells applicants the process is closed and that "a new call for proposals will not be launched for the program." 5
The CDA reads that as a cancellation. "The cancellation of the OHAF removes this layer of support for new projects entirely going forward," the paper states, describing a government that has invested heavily in people's ability to pay while stepping back from the work of connecting them to care. 4
Its remedy is to restore the fund at a level the budget can carry. The paper asks Ottawa to re-establish the Oral Health Access Fund, and concedes that the original $250 million "may need to be recalibrated in light of current fiscal constraints." 4
The staff the chairs depend on
A teaching clinic runs as many chairs as it can staff and supervise. The paper treats the workforce shortfall as a limit on the program itself. In a 2026 CDA survey, 43% of dentists said staffing shortages restricted how many CDCP patients they could see; of those, 68% named dental assistants and 63% named dental hygienists. 4
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The association estimates that the CDCP's demand alone needs roughly 2,300 more dental assistants and more than 1,500 more dental hygienists than the system produces. 4
The asks that reach into training
Four of the paper's recommendations touch dental education, and each names who would act. 4
- Re-establish the Oral Health Access Fund (recommendation 22). Health Canada would reopen the program or replace it, with a mandate aimed at outreach to underserved communities, workforce development and infrastructure.
- Convene the ministers (recommendation 23). The federal government would bring federal, provincial and territorial health and education ministers together with oral health stakeholders to design a sustainable funding and workforce model for teaching clinics.
- Fund workforce planning (recommendation 25). Ottawa would spend $2 million over two years on a pan-Canadian framework for collecting and modelling oral health workforce data.
- Open three programs to dental assisting (recommendation 27). Dental assistants would gain eligibility for federal student loan forgiveness, the post-graduation work permit and an exemption under the Canada Student Grant for private career-college programs.
Two of the scorecard measures closest to this chapter sit at "limited progress": the comprehensive oral health strategy, which covers who the program reaches and the money for targeted access programs, and human resource challenges. 4
What to watch
Three items would move this file next. The first is whether the health and education ministers are convened; recommendation 23 asks for it, and no meeting is on the record. The second is whether the fund is re-established and at what level; Health Canada's page says it is being reviewed and will be updated. 5 The third is the next release of CDCP statistics, which as of 15 September were valid to 31 August and counted 4,764,250 members enrolled for 2026–27 and 900,606 who had used their coverage. 8
Dental students will keep treating patients through the fall term while those decisions are made.
References
- 1
- 2CDCP Policy Paper Launch Breakfast Panel
cda-adc.ca
- 3CDA makes more than 30 recommendations to address CDCP gaps
oralhealthgroup.com
- 4
- 5Oral Health Access Fund
canada.ca
- 6
- 7
- 8Canadian Dental Care Plan statistics
canada.ca
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