Educational debt and intended employment choice among dental school seniors

The authors examined the association between educational debt and dental school seniors' intended activity after graduation.

The authors used multinomial logit regression analysis to estimate the relationship between dental educational debt and intended activity after graduation, controlling for potentially confounding variables. They used data from the 2004 through 2011 ADEA (American Dental Education Association) Survey of Dental School Seniors.

Fourth-year dental school students with high levels of educational debt were more likely to express an interest in choosing to go into private practice, although the magnitude of this effect was relatively small. For each $10,000 increase in debt, the likelihood of choosing advanced education relative to private practice was 1.5 percent lower (relative risk ratio [RRR], 0.985 [95 percent confidence interval {CI}, 0.978-0.991]). For the same $10,000 increase in debt, the probability of choosing teaching, research and administration was 3.1 percent lower than that for choosing private practice (RRR, 0.969 [95 percent CI, 0.954-0.986]) and was 8.4 percent lower than that for choosing a government service position (RRR, 0.916 [95 percent CI, 0.908-0.924]).

Although educational debt was statistically significant for predicting intended activity after graduation, the magnitude of influence of other variables such as sex, race and whether a parent is a dentist was substantially larger. Practical Implications Concerns regarding rising educational debt and its effect on the dental labor market may be misplaced. The characteristics of the dental school student body may be a more accurate predictor of employment choices that dental school seniors are making than are total educational debt levels.