Private practicing endodontists: production of endodontic services and implications for workforce policy

The methods and techniques used by private practicing endodontists to provide patient care are at the core of endodontic workforce policy. Productivity influences both the amount of care provided and the required number of practicing endodontists in the future. Data was collected from practicing endodontists in order to characterize the technical methods of producing endodontic services. This data was then used to develop a statistical model for use in assessing the national endodontic workforce conditions in the United States. A survey was mailed to a random sample of 2,075 private practicing endodontists in the United States based on membership files from the American Association of Endodontists and the American Dental Association. The overall survey consisted of three means of data collection: (1) a survey about the endodontic practice as a whole; (2) a survey about the endodontist; and (3) patient encounter forms used when collecting detailed endodontic procedure data for a single day in the practice. The model was used to obtain a projection of 4,016 endodontists in the year 2005 and 4,671 practicing endodontists in 2010 required to meet the projected demand for endodontic care. The model and survey data provide valuable information to practicing endodontists for use in identifying critical elements used to render care, how the elements are combined in the practice of endodontics, and the minimum number of endodontists required to provide a given volume of endodontic care.