Oral health care services in Europe

Abstract

Health care is being reformed in Europe. Comparative analyses of oral health care services are scarce. Little is known about the relationship between organisation and financing of services and the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of the services. The purpose of the paper is to present some features of the delivery of oral health care services and to discuss some recent changes in a public health perspective. Some of the recent changes in oral health care are: Decentralisation of management in the public services, less third party payment and higher patient charges, more emphasis on free consumer choice. The dominant model of delivery of oral health care is the single private practitioner. The traditional structure of delivery of dental services is challenged by the demands of societies. There seems to be a trade-off between simplicity and the tailor-made mixed payments: gains in degree of freedom through the use of mixed payment systems have to be balanced against losses in terms of simplicity of implementation and equality of the oral health outcome. The roles of the provider, the consumer and the financing institutions are imbedded in trust and regulation. There is therefore a growing recognition of the necessity for a strong role of public health.