Demographics of Dentists in Texas Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas

Objectives: The goal of this study: to determine percentage of Texas dental school graduates providing oral health care in dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) counties, from what Texas schools the dentists graduated from, and what percentage of dentists will be within retirement age in 10 years.
Methods: Texas counties were divided into seven regions: Central, East, North, South, Gulf coast, Panhandle, and West Texas. Data identifying dental HPSA counties was obtained from the Center for Health Statistics, Texas Department of State Health Services. Information for active dentists was obtained from the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners website. The license number, name, city, gender, county, type of practice, dental school, birth year, and graduation date form dental school were obtained for each of the dentist practicing in dental HPSA counties.
Results: A total of 1,039 dentists work in Texas dental HPSA counties; 73% graduated from Texas schools. Data was categorized into seven Texas regions and included which Texas dental school the dentist graduated from. Graduates from non-Texas dental schools make up 26.9% of dentist in HPSA counties and UT Health San Antonio graduates make up 26.3%; accounting for most Texas school graduates, with UT Health Houston graduates at 25.9% and A & M Baylor graduates at 20.9%. Regarding age distribution, 34.3% are between 55 and 69 years old, while 11.7% are between 70 and 90 years of age.
Conclusions: UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry graduates account for most Texas dental school graduates practicing in dental HPSA counties and 38.6% of practicing dentists in the South Texas Region. Within the next 10 years, 46% of the dentists practicing in HPSA designated counties in Texas will be within retirement age, marking an even greater disparity between health care provider to population ratios.