Objective: Based on the understanding on the retirement of dental technicians and their retirement living plans, I would like to devise their future welfare embodying their attitudes of retirement and retirement decision factors.

Methods : I selected 30 questionnaires from January 10th, 2012 to January 30th, among 7,764 dental technicians who were registered in Korea Dental Technician Association in 2012 and collected 25 for the purpose of the preliminary research. After remodifying the questionnaire based on the preliminary research, I sent 778 questionnaires by mail extracting the stratified sampling according to the area from March 10th to April 30th as the first research and collected 139. The valid questionnaires were 111 except 28 bad reponses. It was quite less than the planned recovery rate, so I planned the second research. I sent 500 questionnaires to the area where lacks the response by stratifying sampling again from May 1st until August 30th. I collected 310 and used 275 except 50 bad responses and the total number of questionnaires which actually used in this research were 386 in both first and second research. I analyzed them using frequency analysis, correlation analysis, dichotomous logistic regression analysis, and factor analysis.

Results :
First, for the understanding on the retirement of the dental technicians, 58.3% answered yes for the experience of retirement among their families or people around 41.7% answered no. The time of old age that they thought was 66∼70 years old was highest (36.8%). The age that could do the economic activity was 59.1 years old in average, the time of retirement was 60.4 years old in average, and the time of retirement they wanted was 59.4 years old.

Second, the factors that affect the decision of the retirement of the dental technicians were worries of their health (29.8%), did not want to work anymore (16.8%), and wanted to have relax (16.3%).

Third, things that they regard (or might regard) important after the retirement; the first priority were health (47.9%) and family (27.5%), the second priority were health (27.5%) and economic activity (18.3%), and the third priority were dilettante life (37.1%) and economic activity (20.9%).

Fourth, for the preparation and plan for the old age of the dental technicians; no plan or under consideration was 54.5% and they had no spare money was the highest answer for that reason (84.4). The age of thinking to prepare the retirement life was 37.5 years old in average and the age of starting to prepare was 31.1 years old, and the period of preparing the retirement live was 8.0 years. 63.2% were generally satisfied and 25.3% were not satisfied for their plans for the retirement life. As the means of preparing their retirement life were deposit and interest (33.6%) and private pension (29.6%) except the public pension and the average amount for the retirement life was 7.9 billion won. The percentage of preparing the retirement life in their gross wage was less than 5% (28.5%) and monthly amount was less than 2 hundred thousand won was the highest (36.1%).

Fifth, the expected problems of the retirement life were health problem (52.6%), economic activity (39.9%), and family (28.7%) consecutively.

Sixth, for the things that affect the retirement attitude, the attitude on the retirement when they married was 11.5 times more positive (p=0.005) and when their age was older than 35 years old, it was 4.4 times better (p=0.001). When they were healthy, the retirement attitude was 2.6 times better (p=0.001). When satisfaction rate on their asset was good, it was 15.6 times more positive (p=0.001). When they work at dental surgery rather than dental laboratory, their retirement attitude was 1.3 times more positive (p=0.004) and when they work at public service area, it was 2.2 times more positive (p=0.005). And when their work place satisfaction rate was high, it was 1.1 times more positive (p=0.018). When the expected retirement amount was more than 0.8 billion won, their retirement attitude was 1.3 times more positive (p=0.044) and when their economic prospect after the retirement was good, it was 2.2 times more positive (p=0.049).

Seventh, 4 factors that related to the retirement were, health condition, work place satisfaction rate, understanding of retirement, and the prospect after retirement. Work place satisfaction rate of the respondent was 1.7 times higher when their company had the age-limit system (p=0.002) and their prospect was 2.3 times higher after the retirement (p=0.042). When they had economic plan or preparation, their understanding of retirement was 2 times better (p=0.026) and the prospect after the retirement was 3.6 times better (p=0.000).

Through this research I could find that they work more stable at the work places where there were welfare benefits. It is urgent to prepare a system to give welfare benefits in the social system network for the dentists as well as the whole dental workers.

Conclusions: Retirement is one of the natural phenomena for getting old people, but people who prepared and not prepared will face very different old ages. The dental technicians are classified as a professional career, but many people quit the job because of not fixed income and not established welfare. Through this research I could find that they work more stable at the work places where there were welfare benefits. It is urgent to prepare a system to give welfare benefits in the social system network for the dentists as well as the whole dental workers.