Moving patterns of Iowa dentists who were in private practice in the year 2000

This study examined Iowa private practice dentists’ office moving patterns from 2000 to 2019 to find trends in movement between urban and rural areas. Dentist data was from the Iowa Dentist Tracking System (IDTS). 1424 dentists were in Iowa in 2000. Among them, 616 dentists still remained in private practice in Iowa in 2019. Movers were found by comparing street addresses in 2000 and 2019. Each move was further defined whether it was toward more rural using the 2013 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) index. Statistical tests were conducted to find characteristics associated with moving and subsequently with whether they moved to more rural counties.

Only two of ten dentists in the final sample of 616 moved during 2000-2019. Among 137 dentists who moved, 13.9% moved to more urban counties, 11.7% moved to more rural counties, and 74.5% moved and maintained their practice locations in the same degree of counties. Among those movers who maintained the same degree, eight of ten remained within metropolitan counties. Younger and part-time dentists were more likely to move than older and full-time dentists, respectively.

In conclusion, Iowa private practice dentists who moved during 2000-2019 tended to be younger and work part-time. Dentists did not move much and if they did, they did not move out of metro counties. Therefore, the initial practice location may play an important role in rural/urban distribution of dentists across the state. Policymakers and state leaders should focus on new dentists before they decide on their very first practice locations.