Abstract
Objectives. Dentists are knowledge-based, highly-paid, and specialized professionals with unique professional ethics and cultures. However, their planning behaviors particularly around life planning and retirement consideration are not well understood. We investigated whether working dentists considered their retirement or not and the priority of life after retirement. Methods. A total of 2,000 dentists were selected by simple random sampling from a list of Korean dentists in 2008. The final sample size was 464. Questionnaires consisted of 10 general characteristics and 7 leisure and financial aspects on a 5-pointLikert scale. All statistical analyses were performed using SAS 9.1.3 (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Results. Dentists anticipate retiring at $61.7{\pm}7.2$; the average (mean${\pm}$S.D.) was $62.6{\pm}6.8$ in men and $57.8{\pm}7.4$ in women. The anticipated amount of money required for retirement was 1.7 billion Korean won, which differed by gender (p<0.01). Factors influencing retirement planning financial investments were the type of clinician and working hours per week. Conclusions. About two thirds of Korean dentists are preparing for their retirement and the rest of life. The Korean Dental Association should sponsor formal pre-retirement workshops and/or specific programs to increase awareness and retirement planning.
