Regular dental visits are required for a healthy mouth cavity. Still, people can often miss a dental appointment due to various causes, from dental fear and anxiety to high-cost procedures.
And they are pretty expensive! A group of researchers from Heidelberg University recently published statistical research revealing the total cost of dental services worldwide. The digit is impressive – about 710 billion dollars, which includes:
- 387 billion in direct care costs
- 323 in indirect costs (when treatment effectiveness was decreased due to aggravated symptoms of caries, chronic periodontitis, edentulism, and other disorders).
Scientists analyzed global information received from 98 countries, using data from various organizations, including World Health Organisation and World Bank records for 2019.
In this brief review, we examine the key findings of the research.
Who spends the most?
Let's first review the direct costs. According to the biggest part of spending accumulates in three WHO-defined regions:
- $156 billion in the Americas
- $112 billion in the European region
- $107 billion in the western Pacific
The TOP 3 countries with the most spending on dental care are from each of the mentioned regions:
- United States – $133 billion
- China – $61 billion
- Germany - $30 billion
Indirect costs caused by productivity losses due to different oral conditions have the same TOP of spenders by region and country. Except the Germany ($19 billion) gave way to Japan ($ 23 billion).
There are several conditions causing indirect expenses:
- $167 billion – edentulism
- $82 billion – periodontal desieses
- $49 billion – other oral disorders
- $22 billion – caries of permanent teeth
What's else interesting in research?
The statistics are disappointing – the study clearly shows a significant gap in dental expenditures in high-income countries ($260 per capita) and low–income countries ($0.5 per capita). Some regions spend only a few billion in direct and indirect costs, such as Africa, South-East Asia, and Eastern Mediterranean regions, which have only about $11 billion combined spending.
Fortunately, the current Global Strategy of the World Health Organisation is partially aimed at helping poor regions access more high-quality and affordable dental treatment.
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