Italy's long-running recession has
bitten hard into dental care, with a rising number of Italians
delaying appointments with dentists for economic reasons, the
national statistics agency Istat said Tuesday.
It reported that in 2013, 12% of Italians aged 14 and
older missed a cleaning or dental treatment in the previous 12
months.
And more than 85% of those said that they skipped the
dentist for economic reasons.
Overall, 37.9% of the Italian population visited a dental
health specialist in 2013, down from the 39.3% in 2005.
The delays between appointments was also lengthening, Istat
found.
While 24% of those surveyed in 2005 said they would delay
an appointment for as long as one to three years, that number
increased in 2013 to 29.2% who opted for a long wait to see the
dentist.
The number of treatments also declined, with fully 70.7%
saying they opted for just one type of treatment in 2013 versus
49.3% who chose a single treatment in 2005.
A rising number has never been to a dentist, with 12.1% in
2013 compared with just 6.2% in 2005 who had never had dental
care.
Istat concluded that overall, oral health had improved in
2013 compared to 2005 as measured by the proportion of people
aged 14 and over that still have all 28 of their natural teeth.
That increased to 41.4% in 2013 from 37.8% in 2005, while
those with no natural teeth decreased to 10.8% from the previous
12%.
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