Patterns of dentist location: Lansing, Michigan 1950-1991

Most literature on the location and distribution of medical professionals, particularly in the U.S., has concentrated on the locational patterns of physicians, even though dentists are also important providers of health care. During the last 40 years, dentists in Lansing, Michigan have moved their offices away from traditional downtown locations to other areas of the city, primarily along commercialized arteries leading out of the city core. The changes in dentist location have mainly been the result of older dentists retiring from the downtown area and new, presumably younger dentists locating in other sections. Dentists, like physicians, tend to cluster together, particularly in buildings occupied by other medical and dental professionals. Lansing dentists do not appear to locate their offices on the basis of population characteristics. It is suggested that future research consider the effects of city size on the distributional patterns of all health care professionals.