Staffing Territorial differentiation of human resources of the pediatric dental service in the Russian Federation

Introduction. The territorial availability of pediatric dental care depends on the actual staffing of medical organizations with doctors, the intensity of their activities and the correspondence between workforce capacity and the size of the child population. The indicator of the availability of pediatric dentists per 10,000 children complements the staffing indicators and allows comparing territories with the number of children served. Aim. The purpose of the study is to assess the staffing, availability of pediatric dentists to the children's population, and the proportion of preventive visits in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in 2025. Materials and methods. A cross-sectional medical and statistical study of aggregated data from the federal statistical office was conducted in form № 30: tables 1100 and 2100, row 089 «Pediatric dentists», as well as the provided array of indicators of doctor availability per 10,000 children's population. The analysis of personnel indicators and performance indicators of the pediatric dental service included 85 subjects of the Russian Federation. The availability of doctors was assessed in the Russian Federation, eight federal districts, and two ranked groups, each comprising 10 subjects with the highest and lowest values. The staffing of full-time positions with occupied positions and individuals, the coefficient of part-time employment, the vacancy rate, the number of visits per doctor and the structure of visits were calculated. Descriptive statistics methods and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient were used. Results and discussion. In 85 regions of the Russian Federation, 5,047.75 full-time positions of a pediatric dentist were provided, 4,465.00 positions were occupied; the number of individual doctors amounted to 4,057. Staffing levels were 88.5%, individuals – 80.4%, and the part–time ratio - 1.10. In 2025, 16 108,119 visits were registered, with an average of 3,970.5 visits per doctor; the share of preventive visits was 56.1%. The provision of pediatric dentists in the Russian Federation amounted to 1.37 per 10,000 children. Among the federal districts, the indicator ranged from 0.83 in the Urals to 1.85 in the Northwestern Federal District; the multiplicity of differences was 2.23 times. According to the presented ranking, the maximum value was noted in the Nenets Autonomous District – 4.86, the minimum – in the Kostroma and Yaroslavl regions – 0.17 doctors per 10,000 children. The multiplicity of differences between the maximum and minimum values was 28.6 times. Conclusion. Staffing levels, the actual number of doctors, and the availability of doctors per 10,000 children characterize various aspects of staffing the pediatric dental service. Their joint assessment with the indicators of workload and the proportion of preventive visits makes it possible to identify areas with potential staff shortages and increased workload for doctors.