Overview of dental education system and gender distribution of undergraduate dental students in Taiwan

Feng-Chou Cheng; Yin-Lin Wang; Ling-Hsia Wang; Julia Yu-Fong Chang; Shiang-Yao Liu; Chun-Pin Chiang

doi:10.1016/j.jds.2022.11.011

Overview of dental education system and gender distribution of undergraduate dental students in Taiwan

J Dent Sci. 2023 Jan;18(1):420-427. doi: 10.1016/j.jds.2022.11.011. Epub 2022 Nov 24.

Authors

Feng-Chou Cheng^{1

2}, Yin-Lin Wang^{3

4}, Ling-Hsia Wang⁵, Julia Yu-Fong Chang^{3

4

6}, Shiang-Yao Liu^{1

7}, Chun-Pin Chiang^{3

6

8}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Science Education Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Department of Dentistry, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁴ Graduate Institute of Clinical Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁵ Center for the Literature and Art, Hsin Sheng Junior College of Medical Care and Management, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
⁶ Graduate Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁷ Graduate Institute of Science Education, College of Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Dentistry, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Hualien, Taiwan.

Abstract

Abstract background/purpose: The gender distribution of dentists in Taiwan has been dominated by male dentists for a long time. This study analyzed preliminarily the appearance of the current dental education system and the gender distribution of undergraduate dental students.

Materials and methods: This study used documentary analysis and secondary data analysis to survey mainly the current dental education system and the gender distribution of undergraduate dental students in Taiwan.

Results: There were a total of 2474 dental students and 394 dental graduates in Taiwan in 2021. The numbers of male students (1435, 58.00%) and male graduates (207, 52.54%) were higher than those of female students (1039, 42.00%) and female graduates (187, 47.46%). The numbers of male dental students in the northern (629), central (428), and southern (378) regions were all higher than those of female dental students (423, 373, and 243, respectively). The chi-square test indicated the significantly higher proportion of male dental students in the northern and southern regions (P < 0.01). Besides, there were a total of 15,857 registered dentists. The number of male dentists (10,997, 69.35%) was higher than that of female dentists (4,860, 30.65%). Compared with population, the chi-square test showed the significantly higher proportion of male dental students and male registered dentists (all P-values < 0.001).

Conclusion: In Taiwan, the dental education system must promote female students' interest in dentistry and elevate the proportion of female dental supervisors to increase the proportion of female dental students and female dentists in the future.

Keywords: Dental education; Female dental students; Female dentists; Gender distribution of dental students.