KNOWLEDGE AND OPINIONS ABOUT DENTAL HUMAN HEALTH RESOURCES PLANNING IN MEXICO

Dental human health resource planning (DHHRP), or manpower planning in Mexico has been plagued by fundamental contradictions. In spite of ha ving trained a great many dentists in the past two decades, the dental health status of the population has not significantly improved. Concu rrently, the relative scarcity of patients in relation to the number o f practising dentists seems to be more marked, a critical issue since most dental care is delivered under private schemes. In the present in vestigation, 196 practising dentists in Mexico City were interviewed t o establish their knowledge and opinions about DHHRP, and their views about the introduction of innovative alternatives in transforming, eva luating and planning human health resources. Concerns were: a need to examine and re-define the aims, skill content and marketability of pro fessional training in professional practice; a lack of consensus as to how this is to be achieved; and a degree of awareness that profession al practice has a limited scope in meeting the challenge of providing adequate care because of maldistribution of dentists and of limited fi nancial resources of patients.