Geographic distribution of pediatric dentists in private practice in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
The objectives of this study were to: (1) determine the geographic distribution of pediatric dentists in private practice across the United States; and (2) compare state-based pediatric dental practitioner-to-children ratios.


METHODS
Enumeration of pediatric dental practitioners was derived from the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry's 2000-01 Membership Directory by including all active and fellow members who were in private practice in the United States. Population information for the 50 states and District of Columbia was obtained from Census 2000 data available on the US Census Bureau's Web site.


RESULTS
A total of 2,913 pediatric dentists were in private practice in the United States, with the largest number located in California (333), Texas (238), and New York (202), and the smallest number located in Maine (3) and North Dakota (4). There were 4.03 pediatric dental practitioners for every 100,000 US children younger than 18 years of age. Connecticut and Massachusetts had almost twice (7.7) as many pediatric dental practitioners per 100,000 children as the national average. On the other hand, Maine had only one fourth (1) the number of pediatric dental practitioners per 100,000 children as the national average.


CONCLUSIONS
Marked differences exist between the various states in their pediatric dental practitioner-to-children ratio.
Nainar
S M Hashim
SM
Department of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich, USA. nainar@umich.edu
Feigal
Robert J
RJ
D000293:Adolescent; D002140:California; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003237:Connecticut; D006801:Humans; D008281:Maine; D008404:Massachusetts; D009518:New York; D009658:North Dakota; D010377:Pediatric Dentistry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011331:Private Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013781:Texas