Dentist service rates and distribution of practice styles over time

Studies of dentist service rates have identified clusters of dentists with particular styles of practice, but these practice styles need to be investigated to determine whether patterns of care become established and remain characteristic among dentists. The aims of this study were to establish dentist practice styles and to assess the distribution of these styles of practice between 1983 and 1988. A total of 202 private general practitioners who provided service rate data in both 1983 and 1988 were used in a cluster analysis to group dentists into practice styles. For both 1983 and 1988 three clusters of dentists were obtained, characterized by service rates as "High Restorative", "Low Total Rates", and "High Diagnostic and Preventive". However, the distribution of cluster membership changed over time. The percentage of dentists in the "High Restorative" cluster decreased from 27.9% in 1983 to 16.6% in 1988, the "Low Total Rates" cluster decreased for 60.7% in 1983 to 49.2% in 1988, while the "High Diagnostic and Preventive" cluster increased from 11.4% in 1983 to 34.2% in 1988. The distribution of dentists between these practice styles may be related to aging of dentists, practice maturation, population demographics, need or demand changes, or involve subtle differences in cluster classification over time.