Internet Use among U.S. Dentists

Objectives: To assess the use of technology by U.S. dentists, the American Dental Association conducted the 2006 Technology Survey. Selected results regarding U.S. dentists' Internet use are presented.

Methods: The survey was sent by mail to a random sample of U.S. dentists in private practice. The sample was drawn from the ADA Sampling Frame, which includes all professionally active dentists who graduated from an accredited dental school in the U.S. and is updated yearly. Current information was gathered from the ADA's masterfile. The survey was mailed in November 2006 to 5,549 dentists. Follow-up questionnaires were mailed to non-respondents in December 2006, January 2007 and April 2007. Telephone follow-up calls were placed in February 2007. Data collection ended in May 2007, yielding 2,309 respondents, for an adjusted response rate of 46.1%. Data analysis was performed using SAS.

Results: While levels of importance and use among younger dentists are higher than that of older dentists, these levels vary by different U.S.regions. Fewer dentists 60 or older (28.4%) rated the Internet as very important in their professional lives than did dentists in their 20s (62.5%). More East South Central (44.5%) and Pacific (44.2%) dentists rated the Internet as very important than Middle Atlantic division dentists (32.7%). Most dentists in their 20s (91.8%) use the Internet several times a day, compared to 57.9% of dentists 60 or older. More dentists in the New England states (69.1%) use the Internet several times per day than any other U.S. Census division; 53.5% of East North Central division dentists used it several times a day.

Conclusion: Results provide valuable insight to assist the ADA in its outreach efforts as well as others in the dental community in developing needed resources. The embrace of technology by dentists across the board is an encouraging sign of the profession's development.