Changing patterns of oral health and implications for oral health manpower. Responsibility to the public.
This paper examines organized dentistry's responsibility for informing the public about changing patterns of oral disease. The public is divided into two groups: governments and other organizations that are responsible for allocating funds for dental treatment, education and research, and the general population that is eligible to use dental services. Some governments in industrialized countries apparently believe that with the decline in caries, monies for dentistry can be reduced without affecting the oral health of the population. This assumption can be challenged, since oral disease levels in lower socioeconomic class groups and the elderly continue to be very high. Further, the goals of the dental care system should be raised to eliminate edentulousness. Dentistry needs to make the public aware that adequate care for the poor and elderly and eliminating edentulousness will require increased support for dentistry. At the patient level, regular users of care who are healthy should be informed that more frequent visits and complex services may have little effect on oral health. In contrast, infrequent users of dental care should be made aware that dentistry has the technology to prevent disease and the loss of teeth. One phase in the history of dentistry is coming to an end but another is beginning. In the new era the dental profession can make even greater contributions to the quality of life of individuals and society.
Bailit
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AEtna Life and Casualty, Hartford, Connecticut 06156.
D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D003729:Dental Care / Q000639:trends; D003813:Dentistry; D006291:Health Policy / Q000639:trends; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D009909:Oral Health; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce