A Study on Demand and Supply of Dental Laboratory Technician in Korea

한국 치과 기공사의 인력수급

In order to provide the better and more effective dental health service, the study for manpower of dental laboratory technician with some relevant factors such as institutions for education and training, employment status and distribution of technicians, etc. was carried out through survey for 3,885 licensed technicians during 1965 - 1985. Results were obtained through the study as follows: 1. There are 14 junior health colleges in Korea and 3,106(79.9%) licensed dental technicians out of 3,885 graduated from health colleges and rest of them obtained their licenses through practical training in dental clinics. 2. 8,030 applicants have applied to the national examination which was carried out for 22 times during 1965 - 1985. The passing rate in the examination for 22 times showed 48.3% in average. 3. The dental technicians are working mostly in 404 dental laboratories and 2,522 dental clinics and hospitals through out the country. However, most technicians are dominantly working in large citis, because 255 (63.1%) dental laboratories and 1,537 (60.9%) dental clinics and hospitals are mainly located in Seoul and Busan. 4. Regarding distribution of the dental technician, 1,126(52.1%) technicians have been employed in the dental institutions, however, 530 (24.5%) could not have a job and the rest of them (504 technicians: 23.3%) were in leave absence from military service, travelling abroad and unknown reasons. 5. Through reference review, it was found that there were 95,886 dental technician (9/ 100,000 population) in the world during 1973$\sim$1977. However, 91,553 dental technicians lived in the developed countries (14/100,000 population)) also ratio between the dentist and the dental technician in the world showde 1:0.38. In such coentries where per capita income showed $100 in average, the distribution of the dental technician showed 0.272 per 100,000 population. 6. In an estimation of demand and supply for the dental technicians by the year from 1985 through 1996 in Korea, the supply is estimated by the capacity of educational institutions as over-production even through such estimation based on the future incresing of GNP and ratio between the dentist and the dental technicianas and also ratio between the dental technician and general population. At present such ratio shows less compared with the developed contries, however, it is estimated as over-supply in 1994.