ASSOCIATION BETWEEN RETIREMENT PLANS AND LEVELS OF CAREER SATISFACTION. A SURVEY OF GENERAL DENTAL PRACTITIONERS IN BULGARIA

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.