Aim. The current study aimed at exploring the relationship between retirement intentions and the levels of career satisfaction of Bulgarian general dental practitioners. Materials and methods. An online self-developed questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 1,427 members of the Bulgarian Dental Association from 107 different locations in the country (response rate: 30.5%, n=436). Dentists were inquired about demographics, different work-related aspects, level of satisfaction with dentistry as a profession, future career plans and retirement intentions. Data was analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics 19.0. The significance level was set at p<0.05. Results and discussion. Completely satisfied with dentistry were 66.5% of the respondents, however, almost a fifth (17.4%) would not now choose the same profession as a career. 68% stated that they would continue working either full or part-time after retirement age, and only 5.1% intended to stop working beyond this time. The highest levels of professional satisfaction were observed among dentists who intended to stop practising dentistry or to work only part-time after retirement age (p<0.05). Self-perceived insufficient income was considered the major source of professional dissatisfaction and reason to continue work after retirement (p<0.05). Conclusions. Some association between post-retirement work plans and occupational satisfaction of dentists was observed, which may play an essential role in a proper planning of the future, self-realization, and professional well-being; equally, a higher involvement and firm commitment of GDPs regarding psychosocial aspects of their work need to be addressed.
Keywords:- career plans
- dental professionals.
- job satisfaction
- retirement intentions