Perceived competition in private dental practice in Finland

A questionnaire study was conducted among 350 private dentists in Finland to investigate their perception of competition and how this associated with practice characteristics. The questionnaire comprised 46 questions dealing with perceptions of competition, marketing, and collegiality, respondents' personal and practice characteristics, including age, sex, area of main practice location, weekly hours in private practice, functioning in solo or in joint practice, cooperation with other dentists, and whether practicing in more than one location. The majority of these private dental practitioners perceived much competition between themselves. Almost all (96%) of those feeling much competition today expected it to be more intense after 5 years, compared to 60% of those not perceiving much competition today (P < 0.001). Private practitioners perceiving much competition also felt it from public health centers significantly (P < 0.001) more often (46%) than others (24%). Logistic regression models revealed that those with a practice in more than one location were over 7 times more likely not to perceive competition. Those practicing outside metropolitan Helsinki area had 3.6 times the odds of not perceiving competition, and for women overall the odds ratio was 2.5. Increasing competition in private practice is a widely felt concern, and it may diminish the willingness of new graduates to attempt penetration of the market and establish their clinics.