An international comparison: American and Swedish dental students.

It is interesting and often useful to compare and contrast individuals from different countries who decide on careers in dentistry. Such data can help provide a broadened perspective from which inferences about future patterns of specialization and distribution of manpower in America may be made. This study compares the backgrounds and plans for dental practice of dental students in the United States and Sweden. The similarities that American and Swedish dental students share relate to strong parental influence, time of decision to attend dental school, origins in urbanized areas, interest in direct patient care, uncertainty about specialty training, and a lack of prior health-related experience among males in both countries. The differences in the dental students of the two nations are more pervasive and may be explained in part by the ways the two countries have organized and financed dental education and dental care.