Erfurt (dpa/th) – According to an analysis, the dental health of Thuringians has improved significantly. The periods in which no invasive dental treatments are required are becoming longer and longer, as can be seen from the dental report presented by the Barmer health insurance company in Erfurt on Thursday. The intervals without treatment of teeth, roots and gums are the longest in young adults.
On average, 20-year-olds in Thuringia could go around three years and three and a half months without dental surgery. Comparing the years 2012 and 2020, this period has increased by one month. The data for 40-year-olds shows an even clearer increase in the number of therapy-free periods. In 2012, they got by for an average of just over 20 months without invasive dental therapy. In 2020, the therapy-free period was already 23 months. For 60-year-olds, the periods without dental interventions have increased by one month to eleven months.
According to Barmer Managing Director Birgit Dziuk, this also has something to do with the incipient change from dentistry based on therapy to one based on prevention. According to the report, in Thuringia three quarters (74.2 percent in 2020) regularly go to check-ups, more people than in most other federal states. There is only an even higher rate in Saxony (74.4 percent).
The analysis also shows clear differences between the sexes, it said. Accordingly, men are significantly more often therapy-free in the long term than women. The gender ratio only reverses after the age of 70. “Women appear to use more dental services than men,” said Dziuk.
The Thuringian dentists warn against the cancellation of important dental treatments. The financial stabilization law for the statutory health insurance funds passed in the Bundestag is intended to limit expenditure on dental services and restrict the remuneration that has been negotiated independently between dentists and health insurance funds up to now.
“A limited budget for dental services means in fact the reduction of guaranteed treatments for our patients,” criticized Christian Junge, President of the State Dental Association of Thuringia. The new law will therefore lead to a deep cut in the quality of dental patient care.
