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Objectives: Persons with Parkinson's disease (PD) have a higher prevalence of oral diseases and orofacial dysfunction, but knowledge about the use of dental care and whether their dental care needs are met is sparse. This study aimed to investigate the dental attendance and usage of dental care services of the total PD population in Denmark and compare it with a control group. Methods: National registers were used to identify the total PD population in Denmark (n = 6874) and to obtain data on their dental care from 2015 to 2019. These data were compared with a five‐fold age‐, gender‐ and geographically matched control group without PD (n = 34 285). Register data on age, gender, civil status, educational level, income, nursing homes status and mortality were also collected and adjusted for in the analyses. The dental attendance was analysed using χ2‐test with Bonferroni correction, and the type of dental care services was analysed using negative binomial regression analysis. Results: A significantly higher proportion of persons with PD were irregular attenders of the dental care system (21.0%), compared with the control group (16.9%). Persons with PD had a significantly higher overall usage of dental cares services. Most prominent was the high usage of treatment services, where persons with PD had a 1.50 times higher incidence rate of tooth extractions and a 1.71 times higher incidence rate of tooth fillings in the five years compared with the control group. Conclusion: Persons with PD are more often irregular users of dental care and receive more treatment services than the control group. This indicates a need for high‐quality prophylactic initiatives to prevent high filling and tooth extraction rates. Furthermore, this knowledge can be used by clinicians and decision makers to ensure optimal dental care for persons with PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equipping health systems with suitable incentives for efficient resource allocation remains a major health policy challenge. This study examines the impacts of 2015 regulatory changes in Danish dental care which aimed at effectuating a transition from six-to-twelve-monthly dental recall intervals, for every patient, towards a model where patients with higher need receive dental recalls systematically more frequently than patients with lower need. Exploiting administrative data from the years 2012-2016 from the Danish National Health Insurance database containing 72,155,539 treatment claims for 3,759,721 unique patients, we estimated a series of interrupted time-series regression models with patient-level fixed-effects. In comparison to the pre-reform period, the proportion of patients with recall intervals of up to 6 months was by 1.2%-points larger post-implementation; that of patients with 6-12-monthly recalls increased by 0.7%-points; that of patients with more than 12-monthly dental recalls decreased by 1.9%-points. The composition of care shifted more substantially: the proportion of treatment sessions including preventive care increased by 31.5%-points (95%-CI: 31.4;31.6); that of sessions including scaling increased by 24.1%-points (24.0;24.2); that of sessions including diagnostics decreased by 34.5%-points (34.4;34.6). These findings suggest that dental care providers may have responded differently to regulatory changes than intended by the health policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To describe the pattern of dental services provided to 64-65-year-old Danes who are regular users of dental care over a 5-year period, to analyse whether this pattern is associated with socio-demographic and/or socioeconomic factors, and if different uses of dental services are related to dental status and caries experience. Finally, to discuss the future planning of dental services aimed at the increasing population of elderly citizens. [Correction made on 21 March 2014, after first online publication: The sentence 'Data on elderly's dental service are scarce, although increased use is seen and more teeth are present in this age group.' was removed.]Methods: A cross-sectional study of all aged 64-65 (n = 37 234) who received a dental examination in 2009 was conducted. Clinical data comprised dental services received under the National Health Insurance reimbursement scheme, dental status and DMFT. Geographical, socio-demographic and socioeconomic data derived from public registers.Results: Almost all received restorations, while periodontal treatment was received by <50% during 5 years. Heavy use of dental services was dominated by periodontal services. Periodontal services were most prevalent in the capital and the most affluent areas. Relatively more extractions were related to low income and persons in least affluent areas. Total number of services was highest among women, persons with ≥20 teeth, persons living in the capital, and where the ratio user per dentist was low.Conclusion: For future planning of dental care for elderly, dental status, geographical and social area-based factors and to some degree gender, income, and education must be taken into consideration as all these factors seem to influence the future demand for dental services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To investigate whether receipt of dental services, among attenders, reflects variations in dental health or whether and to what degree it is associated with socioeconomic status, with irregular or regular dental attendance and with the availability of dentists in residential areas.Materials and Methods: This retrospective register-based study followed two Danish cohorts, aged 25 and 40, with a dental examination in 2009 (n = 32,351). The dental service data were registered during 2005-2009. The number of dental examinations, individual preventive services (IPS), tooth extractions, root fillings and composite fillings were analyzed in relation to socioeconomic status, irregular/regular dental attendance, inhabitant/dentist ratio and to DMFT at age 15 (DMFT15) and change in DMFT (ΔDMFT) from age 15 to age 25 and age 40, respectively. Poisson regression and negative binomial regression analyses were used.Results: The variations in number of services received in the study population were small (SD = 0.2-2.7). However, with a few exceptions, high levels of DMFT15 and ΔDMFT were associated with receipt of more dental services. Socioeconomically-privileged individuals received more dental examinations but fewer tooth extractions, root fillings and composite fillings compared to disadvantaged persons, when controlled for dental health levels. Irregular attenders received fewer IPS and composite fillings but had more extractions compared to regular attenders.Conclusions: Variations in dental care services were found to reflect variations in dental health, but the variations were also related to individual socioeconomic status, residential area and dental attendance patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]