Caries in 3–5-year-old Finnish children participating in public dental care during 1974–79

Abstract Nationwide and regional participation in the newly started public dental care system, occurrence of caries and proportion of children registered to be in need of restorative treatment during 1974–1979 were studied in 3-5-year-old Finnish children. The data were collected from the annual reports of municipal dental health centers. The mean annual proportion of children participating in the care increased from 27% in 1974 to 71 % in 1979. A clear improvement was noticed in each county, especially in areas where the earlier situation was poor. During the study period an average proportion of entirely caries free children increased from 24% at the beginning lo 57% at the end of the study. The mean annual proportion of children recorded to be in need of restorative care decreased from 61% at the beginning to 32% at the end of the study period. The mean dmft value decreased from 3.7 in 1974 to 1.7 in 1979. A strong inverse relationship existed between the dental health at the beginning of the study period and the extent of changes in dental health during the 6-year-period. Thus regional differences have greatly diminished since the introduction of the public dental care system.