Underrepresented Minority Dentists: Quantifying Their Numbers And Characterizing The Communities They Serve

Abstract

The underrepresentation of Blacks, Hispanics or Latinos, and American Indians or Alaska Natives among dentists raises concerns about the diversity of the dental workforce, disparities in access to dental care and in oral health status, and social justice. We quantified the shortage of underrepresented minority dentists and examined these dentists’ practice patterns in relation to the characteristics of the communities they serve. The underrepresented minority dentist workforce is disproportionately smaller than, and unevenly distributed in relation to, minority populations in the United States. Members of minority groups represent larger shares of these dentists’ patient panels than of the populations in the communities where the dentists are located. Compared to counties with no underrepresented minority dentists, counties with one or more such dentists are more racially diverse and affluent but also have greater economic and social inequality. Current policy approaches to improve the diversity of the dental workforce are a critical first step, but more must be done to improve equity in dental health.

Dental safety net capacity: An innovative use of existing data to measure dentists’ clinical engagement in state Medicaid programs

“…This study also assessed whether certain characteristics of Medicaid‐enrolled dentists were associated with their level of participation in state Medicaid programs. Findings revealed that significant predictors of the level of clinical engagement are consistent with previous literature examining factors influencing Medicaid enrollment . These consistencies provide some external validity to this new method of measuring levels of Medicaid participation.…”

“…Our findings validate several demographic and practice characteristics of dentists [i.e., job status, self‐reported Medicaid participation, age, race, dental practice type ] as predictors of their participation in state Medicaid programs. Just as importantly, our study provides a novel method of measuring the relative contribution (clinical engagement) of dentists in state Medicaid programs by examining Medicaid claims counts and DHPSA designation resources in addition to state‐based licensure data.…”

Targeting the Pipeline to a Diverse Dental Student Body: Saturday Academy at New York University College of Dentistry

“…The proportion of professionals in health care from underrepresented minority (URM) groups is still not reflective of the racial and ethnic demographics of the U.S 3 7 According to Mertz et al, “To bring the share of these [URM] dentists into parity with their share of the U.S. population would require an additional 19,714 Black dentists, 31,214 Hispanic or Latino dentists, and 2,825 American Indian or Alaska Native dentists.” 8 This stagnation in racial and ethnic composition is in spite of national diversity initiatives, such as admission policy changes and pipeline programs.…”

“…The reason diversity initiatives in dentistry have failed to achieve their goals is not well understood, but the importance of increased diversity in the dental profession is clear 9 , 10 . URM dentists are more likely to serve underserved communities, 8 , 10 ‐ 12 making them essential in the efforts to address disparities with regard to both access to dental care and oral health status. Additionally, studies have found that a diverse learning environment offers an improved learning experience for all students through exposure to a variety of ideas and perspectives 13 …”

“…While we aimed to create a program that was both informative and engaging for high school students, we also placed great effort on developing a program that would be effective by using research findings on the subject. Despite several decades of calls and attempts to increase the diversity of medical and dental professionals, the URM student enrollment in these schools remains stagnant 8 . Previous studies have identified the following factors impacting the pipeline: inadequate institutional support and resources (academic success, educational opportunity, shadowing opportunities), limited personal resources (financial resources, individual skill set), social/familial conflict (fear of non‐acceptance, competition, family pressure), and lack of access to information and advising 19 …”