Dental service provision in private general practice for an insured population in New South Wales, Australia

To determine patterns of dental services provided to a cohort of the insured population 18 years and over, in private general practice in New South Wales, Australia.

A cohort study using the person-years method and Poisson regression for analysis.

Data were derived from claims records submitted by members of a health insurance fund (Government Employees Health Fund-GEHF) for rebates during the study period 1 January 1992-31 December 1995.

There were 133,467 members aged 18 years and over from New South Wales.

To determine, by age group, for those members who used private general practice and made a claim (referred to as 'patients') the annual number of visits, total number of services received per year and number of services received at a visit.

The mean number of visits per patient was 2.4 per year with patients under 45 years making fewer visits than the 45-54 age group reference category. Mean number of services utilised per patient-year was 5.9, with services provided increasing from 3.5 for the 18-24-year-old group, reaching a plateau of approximately 6.2 for those aged 45 years or more. The number of services received per visit was 2.4 and there were no differences by age. Service mix was dominated by restorative (35%), diagnostic (27%), and preventive services (18%); with age specific variations observed.

Age was found to be an important determinant in the use of dental services, independent of membership duration and gender.