Does Dentist Gender & Experience Matter?

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Dental News
A study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association (April 2011) has found there are some differences in treatment a patient receives depending upon whether the dentist is male or female as well as if the dentist has been in practice for awhile or a recent graduate of dental school. However, the differences are small and probably won't impact the quality dental care someone receives all that much.

The study included 393 male and 73 female dentists in four different countries (United States, Norway, Sweden and Denmark) were surveyed on several aspects of the care they provided. While the study found the both male and female dentists were the same when he came to assessing risk for tooth decay and spent equal amounts of time on fillings and root canals, there were some differences;

* Male dentists were more likely to do in-office fluoride treatments for children while female dentists were more likely to recommend at-home fluoride treatments for children

* Female dentists were more likely than males to offer any type of fluoride treatment to adults, although female dentists who had been practicing dentistry the longest were the least likely to offer fluoride to adults

* Male dentists tended to recommend filling a tooth in response to tooth decay while female dentists were a bit more conservative than male dentist by instead recommending preventive treatment

* Female dentists tended to treat more children than male dentists

In addition to differences based on gender, researchers found there were differences based on the experience of the dentist as well as recent dental school graduates were less likely to recommend fillings for early decay on chewing surfaces of teethcommentary regardless of whether a dentist was male or female.