Racial diversity in American oral and maxillofacial surgery.
OBJECTIVE
Health care disparity in the United States is a significant problem. Part of the solution is to improve the diversity of health care providers. The purpose of this study is to review the racial demographic of American oral and maxillofacial surgery as it compares with the racial demographic of the United States. Additionally, the racial demographic of the American dental and medical professions are reviewed.


METHODS
Databases from the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, American Dental Association, and Association of American Medical Colleges were analyzed, specifically reviewing racial demographic data of academic oral and maxillofacial surgery, dentistry, and medicine.


RESULTS
Of the 349 full-time faculty, 248 were white (71.1%), 24 black (6.9%), 18 Hispanic (5.1%), 30 Asian (8.6%), and 29 other/unknown (8.3%); there were no full-time faculty of American Indian or Alaska Native descent. Of the 991 oral and maxillofacial surgery residents, whites comprised 701 (70.7%), blacks 43 (4.3%), Hispanics 42 (4.2%), Asians 197 (19.9%), and unknown 8 (0.8%). There are currently no residents of American Indian/Alaska Native origin. A 2006 American Dental Association survey of the distribution of race among the 179,594 professionally active dentists in the United States revealed 86.2% white, 3.4% black, 3.4% Hispanic, 6.9% Asian, and 0.12% American Indian. In 2004, whites comprised 36.7% (344,821) of US physicians, blacks 3.3% (30,598), Hispanics 2.8% (26,094), and Asians 5.7% (53,799); 27.6% (258,950) of US physicians were listed as unknown, and 23.6% (221,633) were listed as international medical graduates without demographic information.


CONCLUSIONS
American oral and maxillofacial surgery's racial demographic (just as dentistry and medicine) does not remotely resemble the racial demographic of the United States. To improve health care disparity in this nation, diversifying the health care professional workforce is essential. Oral and maxillofacial surgery, a unique surgical specialty connecting medicine to dentistry, is positioned to make an impact on the oral health care disparity in this nation and as such should make a concerted effort to improve the racial diversity of the specialty.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Dental School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA. azizsr@umdnj.edu
Shahid R
SR
Aziz
D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003710:Demography; D003815:Dentists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005179:Faculty, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013515:Surgery, Oral / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States