Abstract
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to determine the geographic distribution of all new dentists who graduated over a period of six years. Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, is one of the world’s most isolated cities, with a population of approximately 1.6 million people, situated over 2000km from its nearest next major capital city. It has a single dental school graduating between 25 and 50 graduates per year.
Design:
Retrospective analysis.
Setting:
Western Australia.
Method:
Using data from open access sources, the practice locations of dental graduates from 2004–2009 were located. All practice locations were mapped against variables such as entry type (standard and non-standard) and year of graduation using ArcGIS, and the distribution was analyzed based on a concentric boundary approach, using the dental school as the centre point.
Results:
Over the period of six years, there were 228 graduates with an almost equal proportion of males (49%) and females. In total, 83% of all local graduates continue to practice in the state of Western Australia. Around 15% of recent graduates (last two years) and 35% of experienced graduates (five and six years post-graduation) work within the 10km radius of their dental school. Over a period of six years, approximately 20% of the non-standard graduates and 30% of the standard graduates practice dentistry in more urbanized areas associated with the place of graduation.
Conclusion:
An apparent association exists between graduation year, type of enrollment and practice location, with a larger proportion of standard graduates working in urbanized areas than their non-standard counterparts.
Keywords
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