Choosing dentistry as a career--Part I: A comparison of student motives.

The race/gender composition of first year dental students at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg has changed over the years. Classes were previously characterised by a predominance of white males, but the race/gender distribution at present reflects a predominance of black students and a significant increase in female students. This may indicate that the motives for choosing dentistry as a career have changed and this possibility was explored in two classes of first year students, those of 1985 and 1990. The black/white and male/female distributions were 29/71 and 85/15 per cent in 1985 and 52.5/47.5 and 57/43 per cent respectively, for the class of 1990. Despite race and gender differences, motives for choosing dentistry appeared to relate to an image of the profession that is perceived as a vehicle for the achievement of personal goals.