Improvements in Dental Health and Dentists’ Workload in Norway, 1992 to 2015

OBJECTIVES: There has been a marked improvement in dental health in Norway during the last few decades. What effect has this had on provision of dental services, and how has private dental practitioners’ assessment of their workload changed? METHODS: The data were from 2 large surveys of private dental practitioners carried out in 1992 (n = 1056) and 2015 (n = 1237). An analysis of nonresponders showed that they were evenly distributed according to their age, gender, and the region in which their practice was located. Thus, the samples were representative of private dental practitioners. For 1 representative week in practice, the practitioners were asked to report the number of visits and the number of patients who received 1 or more of the following items of treatment: filling, crown, bridge, denture, root filling, extraction, and periodontal treatment. As a measure of patient supply, the responses from the following questions were used: “Based on an overall assessment of economy, workload, and other personal factors, is the number of regular patients adequate? If not, do you wish to have more patients or fewer patients?” RESULTS: From 1992 to 2015, the annual number of visits per practitioner decreased by 23%. The number of patients per practitioner who received fillings, crowns, bridges, dentures, root fillings, or extractions decreased by 50% or more. The decrease was largest for practitioners younger than 35 years and for men. The proportion of practitioners who reported a deficit of patients increased from 20% to 37%. CONCLUSIONS: Many dentists will have too few patients and a fall in income in the years to come is expected.