Preventive oral health services in dental practices of Hungary

Objectives. To examine the frequency of oral health screening examinations on children and adults in the years 2000-2002, to assess correlations with the population/dentist ratio, and to determine possible correlations with oral disease data according to different regions in Hungary. Data collection and methods. Data of screening examinations of dentists -working with the National Health Insurance Fund Administration, with data contained in its financial database were evaluated, concentrated on caries -, and oro-pharyngeal cancer epidemiologic data. The cancer mortality data were defined according to ICD codes C00-C14, deriving from the statistical database of the Hungarian Central Office for Statistics. Results. Children under 18 year of age participated in less than 50 % at the screening examinations. The participation of adults at the – for dentists compulsory, for the population voluntary – screening examinations was extremely low, not reaching 10%. Conclusion. High DMFT values in Hungary, and the leading in oro-pharyngeal cancer mortality among 46 countries might be due to the poor performance of systematic primary and secondary prevention, to social background conditions, as well as to the lack of oral health consciousness of the population.