Prevention and the demand for dental care in an international perspective.

Organizational patterns of preventive services aiming at stimulating dental health education and hygiene in the young are differently realized in various countries. The priority allotted to dental care within total health services differs in each society. Differences in allocation of responsibility for dental health are reflected in the proportion of co-payment costs borne by the individual. Low perceptions of need by individuals may cause different backlogs of professionally determined need which influence the supply of care and ensuing costs. This is reflected in various levels of expenditure for dental care within the health sector and in the level of spending on various types of dental services. Closing the gap between need and demand for dental care is realized to different degrees in different countries depending upon prevailing social values and available financial and personnel resources. Thus, comparisons of dental services show sizeable variations in expenditure in terms of both volume and fee factors with different emphasis on modes of treatment and preventive measures among selected industrialized countries. It seems that "deferred' demand and lower emphasis upon prevention can contribute significantly to a disproportionally high and costly share of rehabilitative prosthetic services.