Practising dentists are unevenly distributed across Australia's
states and territories, according to the latest report released
today by the AIHW's Dental Statistics and Research Unit based at
the University of Adelaide.
Dental Labour Force, Australia 2000 shows that
Australia's dentist workforce has increased overall by just over
17% between 1994 and 2000, resulting in a 9% increase in the supply
of dentists from 43 per 100,000 people in 1994 to 46.9 per 100,000
in 2000.
Dentist practising rates varied from 25.3 dentists per 100,000
population in Tasmania to 59.3 in the Australian Capital
Territory.
Substantial variation also existed across geographical regions:
supply was much higher in capital cities overall (55.7 dentists per
100,000 population), compared with 31.4 for all other areas within
the states and territories.
There were 8,991 Australians employed and practising in
dentistry. Most dentists (8,681) were employed in clinical
practice, with the remainder working as administrators, educators
or researchers.
Report co-author, Dana Teusner, said that the composition of
Australia's dentist workforce had changed over recent years.
'Our dentists are getting older, and there are also more women
in the workforce-with the proportion of female dentists increasing
from about 18% in 1994 to 23% in 2000.'
In 1994, 43% of dentists were under 40 years of age; by 2000
this fell to about 36%, with the proportion of dentists aged over
50 years increasing from about 28% to 32% over the same period.
Dentists worked an average of 39.3 hours per week, with male
dentists working more hours per week on average (41.1) than female
dentists (33.7).
Allied dental practitioners make up 22% of the entire dental
workforce. Of these, most were dental therapists (1,121), followed
by dental prosthetists (576), and dental hygienists (319).
Supply of this workforce also varied substantially among the
states and territories-practising rates for therapists ranged from
3.3 per 100,000 population in New South Wales to 17.6 in Western
Australia.
South Australia reported the lowest supply of dental
prosthetists (1.8 per 100,000 population), while Tasmania had the
highest (11.1).
New South Wales had 0.9 dental hygienists per 100,000
population, while South Australia had the highest rate (7.3).
18 September 2003
Further information: Ms Dana Teusner, AIHW
Dental Statistics and Research Unit, tel. 08 8303 4044
Media copies of the report: Publications Officer,
AIHW, tel. 02 6244 1032
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for details.