Although a medical education system for cultivating physicians, which did not include the dental education system for cultivating dentists, was first introduced to Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), Taiwan's dental profession was still booming and the number of dentists in Taiwan reached 738 until the end of the World War II (1945).1 This means that based on the national health needs, the profession of dentists is necessary in modern society, and a dental education system for cultivating dentists is even more crucial. However, the dental school of National Defense Medical Center (NDMC), which was established in 1941, moved to Taiwan in 1949 and unexpectedly became the first dental school to appear in Taiwan. However, its main function is to train military dentists. Then, the dental school of National Taiwan University (NTU), which was founded in 1953 and became the first dental school established in Taiwan, had its first class of five dental graduates in 1961. Sixteen years after the war, Taiwan's dental profession finally welcomed its first batch of new young dentists. After another 60 years of growth, Taiwan's dental profession has developed into a comprehensive dental system with complete dental specialties.2 Since the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) in 1995, the career of dentists has been favored by the social value system, which has accelerated the growth of the number of dentists in Taiwan.3 Currently, there are eight dental schools in Taiwan. In this article, we attempted to explore the geographical distribution of the practicing dentists based on their graduation schools and practice locations in Taiwan in 2022.
In this analysis, the data related to the dental student status of various dental schools in Taiwan in 2022 was obtained from the website of the Ministry of Education. In addition, the open information related to the number of the practicing dentists based on their graduation schools and practice locations, which was released by the nationwide dental professional guild (Taiwan Dental Association, TWDA) according to data of January 2023, was used and regarded as the number of the practicing dentists in Taiwan in 2022. The results of further statistical analysis of the above obtained data are shown in Table 1. Of the eight dental schools, there are 4 in the Taipei City, 2 in the Taichung City, one in the Kaohsiung City, and one in the Tainan City. In term of the dental student status, there were a total of 391 approved enrollment quotas, 2615 dental students still studying in dental schools, and 422 dental graduates in 2022. Among them, the dental school of Taipei Medical University (TMU) had the largest number of approved enrollment quotas, dental students studying, and dental graduates. In addition, females only accounted for about 40% of all dental students studying or dental graduates in overall. For dental students studying, however, there were slightly more females than males in the dental school of Chung Shan Medical University (CSMU). Although the quotas for the one-year clinical training of foreign dental graduates was limited to 50 per year, this number exceeded the approved enrollment quotas of 4 domestic dental schools in Taiwan. Furthermore, there were a total of 16,533 practicing dentists in Taiwan in 2022. Except the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) still did not have dental graduates so far, of the other 7 dental schools, the dental school of Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU) had the most practicing dentists, accounting for 21.84% (3611/16,533) of the total number of practicing dentists. There were 846 practicing dentists graduating from foreign dental schools, accounting for 5.12% and more than those graduating from NDMC (4.55%). In term of geographical distribution of the practicing dentists by city and county administrative districts, for each dental school, the administrative districts with the largest number of practicing dentists were the administrative district of their dental schools located. In overall, the Taipei City had the largest number of practicing dentists, accounting for 21.88% (3618/16,533). In term of geographical distribution by municipality and non-municipality groups, the practicing dentists mainly worked in municipalities, accounting for 80.81% (13,360/16,533). In term of geographical distribution by city and county groups, they mainly worked in cities, accounting for 86.00% (14,218/16,533). In term of geographical distribution by regions, they mainly worked in the northern region of Taiwan, accounting for 53.29% (8811/16,533), followed in a descending order by the southern (23.49%), central (20.27%), and eastern (2.61%) regions, and outlying islands (0.34%). However, the practicing dentists graduating from KMU mainly worked in the southern region, while those graduating from CSMU and China Medical University (CMU) mainly worked in the northern and central regions of Taiwan.
Table 1.
School distribution of the dental students and dental graduates as well as geographical distribution of the practicing dentists based on their graduation schools and practice locations in Taiwan in 2022.
| Dental school |
Domestic dental schools |
Foreign dental schools | Overall | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University name | National Defense Medical Center | National Taiwan University | Kaohsiung Medical University | Taipei Medical University | Chung Shan Medical University | National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University | China Medical University | National Cheng Kung University | Total | ||
| School establishment time and location | |||||||||||
| Time | 1941 | 1953 | 1957 | 1960 | 1960 | 1976 | 1980 | 2019 | |||
| Location | Taipei City | Taipei City | Kaohsiung City | Taipei City | Taichung City | Taipei City | Taichung City | Tainan City | |||
| Region | Northern | Northern | Southern | Northern | Central | Northern | Central | Southern | |||
| Numbers of the dental students and dental graduates | |||||||||||
| Approved enrollment quotas | 20 | 29 | 80 | 82 | 76 | 38 | 46 | 20 | 391 | a | – |
| Students studying (Male, female) | 137# (84, 53) | 221 (141, 80) | 538 (332, 206) | 562 (327, 235) | 481 (234, 247) | 259 (148, 111) | 312 (204, 108) | 105 (60, 45) | 2615 (1530, 1085) | a | – |
| Graduates (Male, female) | 23# (14, 9) | 33 (21, 12) | 88 (53, 35) | 98 (60, 38) | 78 (46, 32) | 46 (30, 16) | 56 (29, 27) | 0 | 422 (253, 169) | 50a | 472 |
| Proportion (%) | 5.39 | 7.73 | 20.61 | 22.95 | 18.27 | 10.77 | 13.11 | 0 | 98.83 | 11.71 | 100 |
| Number of the practicing dentists | |||||||||||
| Number | 753 | 1257 | 3611 | 3568 | 3745 | 1340 | 1413 | 0 | 15,687 | 846 | 16,533 |
| Proportion (%) | 4.55 | 7.60 | 21.84 | 21.58 | 22.65 | 8.11 | 8.55 | 0 | 94.88 | 5.12 | 100 |
| Geographical distribution of the practicing dentists by city and county administrative districts | |||||||||||
| New Taipei City | 95 | 317 | 367 | 942 | 524 | 297 | 182 | 0 | 2724 | 147 | 2871 |
| Taipei City | 208 | 511 | 488 | 1039 | 600 | 373 | 187 | 0 | 3406 | 212 | 3618 |
| Taoyuan City | 84 | 123 | 231 | 371 | 236 | 156 | 137 | 0 | 1338 | 87 | 1425 |
| Taichung City | 93 | 42 | 275 | 251 | 932 | 101 | 381 | 0 | 2075 | 99 | 2174 |
| Tainan City | 33 | 51 | 433 | 178 | 303 | 78 | 129 | 0 | 1205 | 31 | 1236 |
| Kaohsiung City | 99 | 42 | 1180 | 174 | 266 | 75 | 103 | 0 | 1939 | 97 | 2036 |
| Keelung City | 10 | 21 | 22 | 64 | 50 | 16 | 14 | 0 | 197 | 14 | 211 |
| Hsinchu City | 22 | 29 | 59 | 89 | 93 | 46 | 29 | 0 | 367 | 31 | 398 |
| Chiayi City | 2 | 4 | 62 | 44 | 89 | 18 | 24 | 0 | 243 | 6 | 249 |
| Hsinchu County | 14 | 28 | 46 | 51 | 55 | 58 | 27 | 0 | 279 | 9 | 288 |
| Miaoli County | 10 | 14 | 27 | 39 | 56 | 7 | 31 | 0 | 184 | 16 | 200 |
| Changhua County | 6 | 19 | 107 | 112 | 232 | 30 | 82 | 0 | 588 | 36 | 624 |
| Nantou County | 11 | 4 | 33 | 21 | 62 | 7 | 25 | 0 | 163 | 4 | 167 |
| Yunlin County | 6 | 7 | 38 | 31 | 62 | 9 | 26 | 0 | 179 | 7 | 186 |
| Chiayi County | 5 | 1 | 29 | 17 | 34 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 99 | 3 | 102 |
| Pingtung County | 11 | 9 | 119 | 27 | 58 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 246 | 15 | 261 |
| Yilan County | 13 | 13 | 30 | 58 | 35 | 27 | 11 | 0 | 187 | 12 | 199 |
| Hualien County | 22 | 12 | 30 | 31 | 34 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 150 | 12 | 162 |
| Taitung County | 4 | 6 | 20 | 17 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 65 | 5 | 70 |
| Penghu County | 4 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 1 | 36 |
| Kinmen County | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 2 | 20 |
| Geographical distribution of the practicing dentists by municipality and non-municipality groups | |||||||||||
| Municipality | 612 | 1086 | 2974 | 2955 | 2861 | 1080 | 1119 | 0 | 12,687 | 673 | 13,360 |
| Non-municipality | 141 | 171 | 637 | 613 | 884 | 260 | 294 | 0 | 3000 | 173 | 3173 |
| Geographical distribution of the practicing dentists by city and county groups | |||||||||||
| City | 646 | 1140 | 3117 | 3152 | 3093 | 1160 | 1186 | 0 | 13,494 | 724 | 14,218 |
| County | 107 | 117 | 494 | 416 | 652 | 180 | 227 | 0 | 2193 | 122 | 2315 |
| Geographical distribution of the practicing dentists by regions | |||||||||||
| Northern | 433 | 1029 | 1213 | 2556 | 1558 | 946 | 576 | 0 | 8311 | 500 | 8811 |
| Central | 126 | 86 | 480 | 454 | 1344 | 154 | 545 | 0 | 3189 | 162 | 3351 |
| Southern | 150 | 107 | 1823 | 440 | 750 | 192 | 270 | 0 | 3732 | 152 | 3884 |
| Eastern | 39 | 31 | 80 | 106 | 80 | 44 | 22 | 0 | 402 | 29 | 431 |
| Outlying islands | 5 | 4 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 3 | 56 |
# This was based on the data obtained from the address book issued by the dental school of National Defense Medical Center (NDMC) in the 2021 academic year.
Studying abroad is a basic right of people guaranteed by the Constitution of Taiwan. The laws and regulations of Taiwan do not restrict people from studying dentistry abroad, and there are currently no official statistics on the number of dental students studying abroad. The Legislative Yuan Gazette in February 2022 pointed out that there are about 150–200 dental graduates from foreign dental schools returning to Taiwan every year. However, they need to complete one-year clinical training in the teaching hospitals in Taiwan before they can participate in the second phase of national dentist license examination (NDLE), and the number of quotas for this clinical training is limited to 50 per year.
Based on our results, the practicing dentists were mainly concentrated in the Taipei City, municipalities, cities and the northern region of Taiwan in 2022, accounting for 21.88%, 80.81%, 86.00% and 53.29% of all practicing dentists, respectively. According to the 2022 population, in Taiwan, the number of dentists per 10,000 people was as high as 7.11. This means that Taiwan is facing three major dental manpower problems: the surplus, uneven distribution, and urban-rural gap of the dentists. These are consistent with our past findings.3, 4, 5 However, the past research has rarely linked geographical distribution of the practicing dentists and their graduation schools. This article attempted to report these related data. We found that there is a high degree of association between the practicing places of dentists and the locations of their graduation schools. For example, the practicing dentists graduating from NDMC, NTU, TMU and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYMCTU) mainly worked in the Taipei City, while those graduating from CSMU and CMU mainly worked in the Taichung City, and those graduating from KMU mainly worked in the Kaohsiung City. On the other hand, the practicing dentists graduating from foreign dental schools were also highly concentrated in cities and were unevenly distributed. This means that introducing more dentists graduating from foreign dental schools may worsen the problems of oversupply and uneven distribution of the dentists in Taiwan. Therefore, we think that the total quantity control for the dentists graduating from domestic dental schools and foreign dental schools must be adhered to maintain the sound development for dental profession in Taiwan. In addition, providing approved dental enrollment quotas to universities with fewer practicing dentists in their regions of Taiwan may help to balance the distribution of practicing dentists in Taiwan in the future.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.
Acknowledgments
None.
Contributor Information
Ming-Chung Lee, Email: t43006@ntnu.edu.tw.
Chun-Pin Chiang, Email: cpchiang@ntu.edu.tw.
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