[Composition of the dentist population: past, present, and future].

In the Netherlands the population of dentists has gone through major changes in the past decades. Currently the enrollment capacity for the dental schools is increasing again. In this article the consequences of these changes, both in the past as well as in the future, for the structure of the Dutch dentist population are described. This specifically includes the age structure and the gender specific number of dentists in the period 1950-2020. The size and structure of the dentist population is translated into labour supply, expressed in hours available for patient treatment. The labour supply turns out to be stable during the period 2000-2020. As a comparison the size of the Dutch dentate population is discussed. The size of this population will increase considerable in the next two decades. Eventually factors which might have an impact of the labour supply of dentists are discussed.