Acceso abierto

Workforce practices of orthodontists in Australia: now and in the future

Andrew Wang

Andrew Wang

Orthodontic Unit, Level 10, Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building Corner of North Terrace andAdelaide, SA
Buscar este autor en
Sciendo|Google Scholar
Wang, Andrew
 y 
Maurice J. Meade

Maurice J. Meade

Orthodontic Unit, Level 10, Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building Corner of North Terrace andAdelaide, SA
Buscar este autor en
Sciendo|Google Scholar
Meade, Maurice J.
  
09 abr 2025
Workforce practices of orthodontists in Australia: now and in the future's Cover Image
Acerca de este artículo
Artículo anterior
Artículo siguiente
Cite
Descargar portada
Publicado en línea: 09 abr 2025
Páginas: 100 - 111
Recibido: 01 dic 2024
Aceptado: 01 feb 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aoj-2025-0006
Palabras clave
© 2025 Andrew Wang et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Objective

To investigate current and future workforce practices of qualified orthodontists (QOs) and trainee orthodontists (TOs) in Australia.

Methods

An original piloted e-survey with questions regarding current practices and intended working practices of QOs and TOs was developed. The survey was distributed to 514 QO and 46 TO members of the Australian Society of Orthodontists (ASO) from January to June 2024 via REDCap (https://www.project-redcap.org/). Reported hours were converted to full-time equivalent (FTE) units. One FTE unit equated to working 35 hr per week for 46 weeks in one year.

Results

The response rate was 30.7% for QOs and 69.5% for TOs. FTE units per clinician, on average, was 0.80 (SD: 0.28) for QOs and 1.01 (SD: 0.14) for TOs. There was no difference between female and male clinicians related to FTE units (p < 0.05). For QOs and TOs, 48.3% and 34.3%, respectively, reported that they would work in metropolitan areas only. “Prefer to be close to friends and family” for QOs (84%) and “enough work in metropolitan areas” for TOs (100%) were the most reported reasons for working in metropolitan areas only. For QOs, 43.6% of respondents reported that they spent most of their hours working in “solo owner” roles. Fifty-one (29.9%) of the QO respondents indicated that they intended to retire within the next 5 years.

Conclusions

Over the next 5 years, the specialist orthodontic workforce in Australia is likely to experience losses particularly in non-metropolitan areas and in “solo owner” practices. This may have a significant impact on orthodontic treatment provision in Australia.
Idioma:
Inglés
Calendario de la edición:
1 veces al año
Temas de la revista:
Medicina, Ciencias médicas básicas, Ciencias médicas básicas, otros
RSS Feed de revista