Dentist manpower development and geographical distribution of dentists in Taiwan.

Dental institutions Dentist manpower development Imbalance in geographical distribution Oversupply of dentists

Journal

Journal of dental sciences
ISSN: 2213-8862
Titre abrégé: J Dent Sci
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 101293181

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
Jun 2020
Historique:
received: 13 04 2020
pubmed: 24 4 2020
medline: 24 4 2020
entrez: 24 4 2020
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

The development of dentists in Taiwan has been over a century. This study tried to explore the dentist manpower development and the current status of geographical distribution of dentists in Taiwan. This study used the secondary data analysis to survey the changes of total dentist number from 1986 to 2018 and the geographic distribution of dentists in different levels of dental institutions in 2019. The total number of dentists increased from 3739 in 1986 to 14,717 in 2018. The total number of hospital dentists increased from 809 in 1986 to 2121 in 2018. However, the proportion of hospital dentists in the total number of dentists decreased from 21.64% in 1986 to 14.41% in 2018. On the contrary, the total number of dental clinic dentists increased from 2930 in 1986 to 12,596 in 2018. The proportion of dental clinic dentists in the total number of dentists increased from 78.36% in 1986 to 85.59% in 2018. The northern region of Taiwan and Taipei City had 52.81% (7829/14,825) and 22.29% (3304/14,825) of the total number of dentists in 2019, respectively. Hospital dentists showed a significantly greater imbalance in geographic distribution than overall dentists. Our results indicate that Taiwan has the problems of oversupply of dentists and imbalance in geographical distribution of dentists. Because continuation of the current dentist manpower development may accelerate the oversupply and geographical imbalance of dentists, a mechanism for controlling the total dentist manpower should be implemented to prevent the deterioration of the problems.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE OBJECTIVE
The development of dentists in Taiwan has been over a century. This study tried to explore the dentist manpower development and the current status of geographical distribution of dentists in Taiwan.
MATERIALS AND METHODS METHODS
This study used the secondary data analysis to survey the changes of total dentist number from 1986 to 2018 and the geographic distribution of dentists in different levels of dental institutions in 2019.
RESULTS RESULTS
The total number of dentists increased from 3739 in 1986 to 14,717 in 2018. The total number of hospital dentists increased from 809 in 1986 to 2121 in 2018. However, the proportion of hospital dentists in the total number of dentists decreased from 21.64% in 1986 to 14.41% in 2018. On the contrary, the total number of dental clinic dentists increased from 2930 in 1986 to 12,596 in 2018. The proportion of dental clinic dentists in the total number of dentists increased from 78.36% in 1986 to 85.59% in 2018. The northern region of Taiwan and Taipei City had 52.81% (7829/14,825) and 22.29% (3304/14,825) of the total number of dentists in 2019, respectively. Hospital dentists showed a significantly greater imbalance in geographic distribution than overall dentists.
CONCLUSION CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that Taiwan has the problems of oversupply of dentists and imbalance in geographical distribution of dentists. Because continuation of the current dentist manpower development may accelerate the oversupply and geographical imbalance of dentists, a mechanism for controlling the total dentist manpower should be implemented to prevent the deterioration of the problems.

Identifiants

DOI: 10.1016/j.jds.2020.04.004 PMID: 32322365 PMC: PMC7173809
pubmed: 32322365
doi: 10.1016/j.jds.2020.04.004
pii: S1991-7902(20)30072-6
pmc: PMC7173809
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

121-131

Informations de copyright

© 2020 Association for Dental Sciences of the Republic of China. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Références

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pubmed: 30988879
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pubmed: 1360099
Pediatrics. 1997 Aug;100(2 Pt 1):172-9
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Bull Tokyo Dent Coll. 2009 May;50(2):63-70
pubmed: 19815993

Auteurs

Feng-Chou Cheng (FC)

School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Dentistry, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Julia Yu-Fong Chang (J)

Department of Dentistry, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Graduate Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Graduate Institute of Clinical Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Tzu-Chiang Lin (TC)

Center for the Liberal Arts, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Wen-Chiung Chang (WC)

National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli County, Taiwan.

Yung-Ta Chang (YT)

School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Chun-Pin Chiang (CP)

Department of Dentistry, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Department of Dentistry, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Graduate Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Graduate Institute of Clinical Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Dentistry, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Hualien City, Taiwan.

Classifications MeSH