Reasons that orthodontic faculty teach and consider leaving teaching

To assess reasons why orthodontic faculty consider leaving academia, a pretested questionnaire was mailed to 200 full-time (FT) and 200 part-time (PT) faculty randomly selected from the United States and Canada. A total of 144 (72 percent) of FT and 120 (60 percent) PT responded. About 38 percent FT and 25 percent PT were currently considering leaving academia. The average age of each group was about fifty years. Although significant differences were found in fifteen factors affecting the decision to leave, three factors ranked as most important (means> or =3.4) for FTs: salary support, financial support of department, and control over work or destiny. The three factors most important (means>3. 1) for PTs were: challenge of private practice, family commitments, and personal. FT and PT were similar in the most important and least important factors influencing their initial reasons to teach and satisfaction in teaching. However, the reasons why FT considered leaving were work related, while the PT's reasons were more personal. With the current shortage of FT orthodontic faculty becoming imminently greater, it appears that work-related issues could be addressed directly by administration.