Distribution of students admitted to dental schools of general universities in Taiwan in 2020

Background/purpose: In Taiwan, the average income of a dentist increases after the implementation of national health insurance in 1995. Thus, the domestic departments of dentistry become a popular choice of university departments for high school graduates. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the distribution of students admitted to dental schools of general universities in each city or county in 2020 and to further compare the differences in regional distributions of dental freshmen accepted by three admission ways in 2020. Materials and methods: This study collected the number of dental freshmen of general universities in each city or county in 2020 for further evaluating the differences in regional distributions of dental freshmen accepted by three admission ways in 2020. Results: The distribution of dental freshmen in 2020 did have a big urban-rural gap. These dental freshmen were more concentrated in municipalities than in non-municipalities in Taiwan. The execution of three admission ways did play a role in balancing the urban-rural gap in the distribution of dental freshmen. Conclusion: The urban-rural gap of the distribution of dental freshmen was not larger than that of dentists. The increased guaranteed enrollment quota of dental freshmen for the high school graduates in the offshore islands do cause unequal opportunities of admission to dental schools. If these extra-enrolled dentists do not return to their hometowns to practice, this may worsen the surplus of dentists and may fail to improve the uneven distribution of dentists in Taiwan.