Dental health is an integral part of general health and quality of life. Access to dental care is often more limited for certain parts of the population, either because dental care is less covered under public health insurance system and therefore less affordable for people with lower income or because of a short supply of dentists in certain areas. In 2023, 6% of people who needed dental care reported some unmet needs because of affordability or accessibility issues according to the EU-SILC survey, but this proportion reached over 12% among people at risk of poverty (see indicator “Unmet healthcare needs”).
Dentists play a key role in both preventing and treating oral health problems. In 2022, there were between 0.5 and 1.3 dentists per 1 000 population across EU countries (Figure 7.13). Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Bulgaria and Romania had the highest numbers of dentists per capita, although the numbers in Greece and Portugal are over-estimated as they include all dentists licensed to practice. In all these countries except Greece, the number of dentists per capita increased greatly between 2010 and 2022. On average across EU countries, the number of dentists per 1 000 population increased from 0.7 in 2010 to 0.8 in 2022. Denmark is the only EU country where the number of dentists per population fell during that period.
While there is no general consensus about how often people should visit a dentist, the recommendation in several countries is that children should have a visit at least once a year to prevent and treat any problem quickly, while adults without problems may wait as long as two years. On average across EU countries, a person had 1.2 consultations with a dentist in 2022, ranging from 0.3 in Romania to 3.3 consultations in the Netherlands. In most EU countries, people had one or two consultations per year Figure 7.14).
The markedly low number of consultations in Romania, despite having one of the highest numbers of dentists in the EU, is linked to the high out-out-pocket cost of dental care due to low public coverage. More than 90% of dentists work in private practices where the majority of the population cannot afford dental care. These practices have increasingly leveraged cross-border dental tourism to sustain their activities. On the other hand, some dentists are emigrating to other EU countries due to insufficient activity (European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, 2022[1]).
By contrast, the high number of consultations in the Netherlands can be explained at least partly by the high awareness of people arising from well-established programmes to promote prevention of oral health issues at a young age. The National Dutch programme “Keep your Mouth Healthy” provides oral health education to children and is considered one of the best practices in Europe. Several other European countries also have similar programmes of oral health promotion targeting children. For example, in Croatia, a programme targeting kindergarten and elementary school children promotes effective oral hygiene habits, guiding children to integrate toothbrushing into their daily routines under teacher supervision.
The extent of public coverage for dental care costs varies widely across countries and can partly explain some of the cross-country variations in the use of dental care services (see indicator “Extent of healthcare coverage”). In Romania for example, only 7% of dental care spending is publicly funded. By contrast, in France and Germany, more than 65% of dental spending is publicly covered. In the Netherlands, while dental care is not comprehensively covered in the benefit package for adults, voluntary health insurance plays an important role in covering dental care costs.
