University Health Services (UHS) announced last week that it would double the number of dental hygienists in an attempt to alleviate the months-long wait many students face in getting appointments.

The move will increase the number of hygienists from nine to eighteen and UHS officials say they hope it will ease the unexpected bottleneck that emerged when nearly twice as many students as usual signed up for UHS’ dental insurance program.

UHS Director David S. Rosenthal ’59 attributed the marked increase to aggressive marketing by health staff.

“We did a good job of promoting it through our website and various outreach events,” said Rosenthal. “But when it came time to schedule appointments, we were in a hole.”

This past fall, patients—including faculty, staff and their families who use UHS as a primary health care facility—faced a three to six-month wait in scheduling appointments, Rosenthal said, although students could often be accommodated within six to eight weeks as long as they were willing to see any available clinician.

The new expansion comes a few weeks before what is seen at UHS as the busy season for students requesting dental appointments—the last two months before the end of the school year.

“Students want to take care of things before they leave campus, which provides for the crunch in May,” Rosenthal explained.

Rosenthal stressed, though, that the increase in dental staff, while unusual, is hardly unprecedented. UHS often adds staff as needed to ease patient visits, he said.

“We look at our numbers on a weekly basis, and then we make the necessary changes,” he said. “It’s something we do in all our clinics, not just for the dentists.”