Use of public and private dental services by adults in Finland

The aim of this study was to analyze the factors that affected the choice between public and private dental services in 1979, when 9% of adults had received their dental services in a public health center. In September 1979 the National Board of Health conducted a telephone interview among Finnish adults over 15 yr old. When a representative sample of 1992 adults was drawn, the response rate was 90.4%. All subjects over 17 yr of age who had used dental services within the last 5 yr were included in the study, making a final sample of 1368. According to the logistic function, the greatest differences were between rural and urban areas. Of the subjects living in urban areas, 18% had visited public health centers; and of those living in rural areas, 45% had visited health centers. Of the adults living in an urban setting, 70% and in rural areas 49% visited private dentists. Of the subjects who had used private dental services, nearly half were managers and upper white-collar workers; while of those using communal services, less than one third worked in such jobs. In urban areas managers and upper white-collar workers used private services twice as often as they used public services. In an urban setting, subjects who had visited a dentist during the last 2 yr had received treatment mainly in the private sector; and in a rural setting, subjects had been treated mainly in health centers.