Method: Biographical, educational, and professional information about every active Iowa dentist is gathered and updated at least semi-annually through the Iowa Dentist Tracking System (IDTS), which is one of five health professional systems in the state. The first full year of data collection for dentistry was 1997. This period approximates the time when women were dramatically increasing their presence in the profession and the preponderance of male dentists was beyond 50 years of age. For these analyses, part-time is defined as working less than 32 hours per week, on average.
Result: The number of active dentists in Iowa remained relatively stable (range 1417-1461) for a decade, then it increased by 6.2% from 2008 through 2012. The percentage of women has more than doubled (11.4% to 24.6%) during the 16 years. Conversely, the percentage of private practitioners 60 years and older, which is overwhelmingly male, increased from 13.8% to 23.8%. Part-time dentists decreased from 13.8% to 11.3% from 1997 to 2007, then rose gradually to 16.1% by 2012. However, the percentage of female dentists who worked part-time was approximately double that of their male colleagues for each year. In 2012, dentists had the largest percentage of its profession who were 60 years or older among the statewide tracking systems. Forty-three of Iowa’s 99 counties had a population-to-dentist ratio of greater than 3000:1, with 15 of those counties having a ratio of greater than 5000:1.
Conclusion: There has been a dramatic increase in the percentage of female dentists since the beginning of this tracking system. It is anticipated that more rural counties will be adversely affected as a large bolus of dentists reach retirement age.