Overview of dental professionally topical fluoride application in public health measure in Taiwan in 2021

Abstract

Background/purposeIn Taiwan, it has been 16 years since the policy of children's dental professionally topical fluoride application (PTFA) services was implemented. This study investigated the differences in the number of children's dental PTFA outpatient visits among cities and counties or different regions of Taiwan in 2021. Materials and methodsThe population data and medical records of the number of children's dental PTFA outpatient visits were obtained from the websites of Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Health and Welfare, respectively. The secondary data were divided by cities and counties to analyze the urban-rural gap and regional differences in the number of children's dental PTFA outpatient visits in Taiwan in 2021. ResultsIn Taiwan, municipalities had the largest number of dental PTFA visits (721,338, 66.91% of the total dental PTFA visits), while remote and outlying island counties had the smallest number of dental PTFA visits (84,509, 7.84%). The northern region had the largest number of dental PTFA visits (466,728, 43.29%), while outlying islands had the smallest number of dental PTFA visits (25,055, 2.32%). Based on the children aged 3–5 years, municipalities had the lowest dental PTFA use rate (171.70%), while remote and outlying island counties had the highest dental PTFA use rate (482.96%). ConclusionIn Taiwan, there is a higher number of children's dental PTFA outpatient visits in municipalities than in non-municipalities or remote and outlying island counties as well as in northern region than in each of other four regions (central, southern, and eastern regions and outlying islands).