Work force trends that influence dental service capacity

Area of Science:

• Dental Public Health
• Health Services Research

Background:

• The number of active private dentists grew significantly between 1982 and 1995.
• Understanding the capacity of the dental care system requires analyzing dentist distribution and time allocation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze changes in the distribution of active private dentists (part-time vs. full-time) between 1982 and 1995.
• To assess the impact of these changes on total office hours and patient treatment time.
• To provide a more comprehensive understanding of dental care delivery system capacity.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of the number of active private dentists, categorized by full-time and part-time status.
• Examination of the total hours spent in the dental office and hours spent treating patients during the study period.
• Comparison of percentage changes in dentist numbers, office hours, and patient treatment hours.

Main Results:

• The total number of active private dentists increased by 21.7% from 1982 to 1995.
• Part-time dentists increased by 104%, while full-time dentists increased by only 8%.
• Despite increased dentist numbers, total office hours did not rise proportionally, but average patient treatment hours per dentist increased, indicating enhanced efficiency.

Conclusions:

• The rise in part-time private dentists significantly influences the overall dentist population growth.
• Dentist efficiency in patient treatment has increased, suggesting a shift towards more focused clinical activity.
• Analyzing dentist distribution and time allocation provides a more accurate measure of dental care system capacity than total dentist numbers alone.