The changes of the number and regional distribution of dentists and dental institutions 9 years after the implementation of postgraduate year training program for dentists in Taiwan

Background/purpose: In Taiwan, there are three major dentist occupation problems: a surplus of dentists, an uneven regional distribution of dentists, and a concentration of dentists in the metropolitan areas. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the distributions of the population and dentists in each city or county in 2001, 2010 and 2019 to further analyze the changes of regional distributions of dentists 9 years after the implementation of postgraduate year training program for dentists (PGYD) in 2010 in Taiwan. Materials and methods: This study collected the data of population, the number of dentists in each city or county in 2001, 2010 and 2019, and the numbers of dentists and dental institutions from 2001 to 2019 for evaluating the changes of regional distributions of dentists 9 years after the PGYD implementation in Taiwan. Results: Nine years after the PGYD implementation, the uneven distribution of dentists persisted. The number of dentists still increased and dentists were more concentrated in municipalities than in non-municipalities in Taiwan. Moreover, the number of dental institutions increased slowly, but dental institutions tended to become larger. Conclusion: Because the PGYD system is not mandatory, dentists choose their practice locations as driven by the market factors. The increase in the average number of dentists in dental institutions is also driven by the market factors. The market-driven movement of dentists to the people-concentrated municipalities finally persist the imbalance of dentist distribution in Taiwan. This situation also enables the development of large-scale dental institutions in municipalities in Taiwan.