Distributions of dental freshmen and practicing dentists and their correlations in different regions of Taiwan in 2020

Background/purpose: Taiwan is facing the problems of the surplus, the uneven distribution, and the urban-rural gap of dental students and practicing dentists. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the distributions of dental freshmen and practicing dentists in different regions of Taiwan in 2020. Materials and methods: We collected the numbers of dental freshmen and practicing dentists in different regions of Taiwan in 2020 for evaluation of their regional distributions in Taiwan and their relationship by the regression analysis. Results: The numbers of dental freshmen and of practicing dentists per 100,000 people in municipalities were higher than those in non-municipalities (P < 0.01 for practicing dentists only). These corresponding numbers in cities with dental schools were significantly higher than those in cities and counties without dental schools, respectively (all P-values < 0.05). In addition, the coefficients of correlation between the dentist index and the dental student index were R² = 0.7521 (P < 0.05) for municipalities (n = 6), R² = 0.6332 (P < 0.001) for non-municipalities (n = 15), R² = 0.9334 (P < 0.05) for cities with dental schools (n = 4), R² = 0.4925 (P < 0.01) for cities and counties without dental schools (n = 17), and R² = 0.5025 (P < 0.001) for nationwide (n = 21). Conclusion: The dental freshmen and practicing dentists are still more concentrated in municipalities than in non-municipalities and in cities with dental schools than in cities and counties without dental schools in Taiwan in 2020.