Trends in the dental health work force

Abstract

Background and overview: Using data from various American Dental Association projects (Distribution of Dentists Survey, the Survey of Dental Practice, the Dental Workforce Model, and the Survey of Predoctoral Dental Educational Institutions), the authors analyzed trends and projections for the dental work force. The article presents work-force projections overall and by sex, when available, through the first 20 years of the 21st century. The number of women practicing dentistry has been increasing rapidly, while the increase in the number of male dentists has been more modest. In the future, the number of female dentists is projected to increase while the number of male dentists is projected to decrease.

Conclusions: Estimates based on the ADA census data place the overall growth in the number of active private practitioners at 19.1 percent between 1982 and 1997. This growth signifies a substantial expansion of capacity to produce dental services in the United States. Growth will be slower in the future.

Practice implications: Changes in the dental work-force capacity and demographic distributions merit careful monitoring and analysis, because they no doubt will determine the dental profession's future ability to deliver needed dental services and influence practitioners level of busyness.