Dentist in Oral Health System in 2001.

Abstract

This study was carried out to explore the demographic (number, sex, age, distribution and post graduation education or training) and the characters (working hours and types of services) of dentists registered with the Thai Dental Council. Demographic data was obtained from existing database of 2 sources i.e. Thai Dental Council and Dental Health Division, Department of Health in the year 2001. Another data was collected by mail questionnaire. In the year 2001 there were 7,156 Thai dentists in which the ratio of female : male was 1 : 0.64. Regarding the demographic data, 50.84 % working in private practices, 65.91% were less than 40 years old, 46.91% had been working less than 10 years, 49.17% were concentrated in Bangkok - the capital and 17.64% worked in central region. Ratio of dentist per population; as a whole was 1 : 8,624, the least ratio was in north-eastern region 1:24,462 and the highest was in Bangkok 1: 1,605. Dentists had post-graduation degree was only 25.45% and mainly these were university diploma. Only 3.70 % got the Thai Dental Council Board. The highest number of post-grad training specialty was oral surgery and maxillofacial (3.97%). Questionnaires were posted to 6,548 dentists and 2,475 returned with the respond rate at 37.80%. Among respondents 94.51% were in dental service practice. Average practicing time was 36.61 hours/week. Working hours of male and female dentists were 40.44 and 35.56 hours/week respectively. Average time for specialized services did not differ among different type of specialists. Specialist dentists provided both general and specialized services but spent more time on specialized work especially orthodontists, pedodontists and operative dentists. However, the highest working hours during official hours were found in the oral and maxillofacial surgery group while the highest hours during non-official hours were found in the orthodontists.