Online Program

284357
Demographic trends and profiles of the US dental public health workforce


Sunday, November 3, 2013

Sawsan Salih, BDS, MPH, Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA
Mary Tavares, DMD MPH, Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA
Elsbeth Kalenderian, DDS, MPH, Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA
The demand on dental public health services continues to rise with increasing global oral health needs. Currently, there are 13 accredited Dental Public Health (DPH) US residency programs that fulfill requirements for specialty certification. Knowing the composition of current and past residents and observing trends in their profiles will inform us about future DPH manpower trained in the US. Methods: An in-depth survey of 51 Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) DPH alumni was conducted using a validated survey tool. Similar data from other US programs has been collected from program directors. Results: HSDM data revealed a sharp increase in the female-to-male ratio over the past 3 decades. While 98% of these graduates work in the US, 71% of current enrollees are international students and 86% are internationally trained. For graduates who completed a DPH residency, board certification highly correlates with practicing DPH. Many graduates (80%) reported that they were employed in a setting associated with DPH: academic, public, and government. Similar data collected from other programs is being analyzed and compared to our findings. Trends in each program, as well as an overall analysis of the trends in DPH graduate profiles will be presented. Conclusions: Recent HSDM Dental Public Health residents have been mostly female and internationally based, indicating a definite change in graduate profiles. There is strong evidence that formal DPH training and board certification results in a committed workforce. We expect to see similar trends when we include data from the other US programs.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related education
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Analyze trends observed in the profiles of current and past residents in order to project future global Dental Public Health manpower.

Keyword(s): Workforce, Training

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As part of my Dental Public Health (DPH) residency training at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM), I have developed validated, disseminated, and analyzed results of the survey tool used in the preliminary research. The trends observed in the profiles of the surveyed HSDM alumnus sparked my interest on the challenges DPH manpower is facing.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.