Purpose: A study of dental manpower distribution was made in Shanghai Pudong new district in order to analyze the needs and demands for dental services in Shanghai Pudong new district, to forecast the developmental trends of dental demand in the future and to provide basis for regional programs of dental manpower in the urban areas of China.
Methods: An analysis was made in 601 subjects taken from all age groups in Shanghai Pudong new district by stratified and cluster random sampling and in 83 medical institutions of stomatology in Shanghai Pudong new district by mass examination. The amount of dental manpower need and demand was computed and forecasted by means of health care need and demand and proportional analogy methods.
Results: The total amounts needed were 755-834 dentists. The total amounts demanded were 285-314 dentists. It was forecasted that the figures would be 392-1041 in the year of 2010. The prevalence of oral disease was 90.18%, but only 37.66% of subjects visited dentist in a year. The ratio of dentists to the population was 1:9375.
Conclusion: The unbalance between demand for and supply of dental manpower was mainly due to negative awareness of people, the irrationalness of demand levels, problems from service provider and the irrationalness of dental manpower levels.