Summary of More Young People and Adults under Supervision of the Public Dental Services

In March 2004, the Norwegian Board of Health published a report on dental services in Norway (Report from the Norwegian Board of Health 5/2004). As part of our work with following up trends in provision of dental services, we have updated the statistics with figures for 2003, and produced this short rapport.

The report presents a description of supply of public dental services to the priority groups (as defined in the Dental Health Services Act) and trends from 2002-2003:

• In 2003, 1.2 million people were under supervision of the public dental services. This represents 88 per cent of all people in the priority groups.
• 80 per cent of all people under supervision of the public dental services were children aged 1-18 years.
• During the period 2002-2003, the number of children under supervision of the public dental services increased by 1.0 per cent and the number of mentally handicapped adults increased by 1.8 per cent.
• The number of young people aged 19-20 under supervision increased by 8.8 per cent.
• During the same period, the number of elderly people, people with long-standing illness and people with a disability pension under supervision decreased slightly.
• The number of adults (who pay for their treatment) under supervision increased by 10.5 per cent.
• The variation between the counties has not become less.