Economic growth of the dental profession: comparisons with other health care sectors.

This paper describes the economic growth of the dental profession and concludes, on the basis of increases in real output in excess of the GNP, that the dental services sector of the economy is a growth industry. The analysis shows that, on a relative basis, dentistry also appears to be growing with respect to other important health service sectors, including physician services. Changes in output appear to be related to the expansion of the supply of dental workforce, the increased productivity of individual general practitioners, population growth, and the increase in the portion of the population with dental insurance.