Finnish immigrants and dental care in Stockholm county

In recent decades Sweden has become an immigrant country. The proportion of persons of foreign origin in the population has risen from 0.5% in the 1940s to slightly more than 10% in the early 1980s. Migration to Sweden is a part of the extensive international migration of labour that has occurred in Europe since the Second World War. Almost half of the immigrants in Sweden come from Finland. The common Nordic Labour market since 1954 allows free migration of nordic citizens. No comprehensive dental health studies have been performed on immigrants in Sweden. The aim of this study was to assess and analyse the dental situation and utilization of dental services by Finnish immigrants to Stockholm county. Three different methods were used to gather dental epidemiological data. A clinical examination of an age-stratified random sample consisting of 170 adult Finnish citizens living at Huddinge, a suburb of Stockholm, provided data on the oral health during 1977. A questionnaire survey of a random sample of 1332, 20-59 yr old Finnish citizens in the same community in 1981 provided information on utilization of dental services, dental visiting behaviour and factors which determined this and also on perceived treatment needs in this population group. Finally, a comparison of use of dental services by and treatment provided to all Finnish citizens aged between 17-64 yr, born on the 20th of any month and living in the County of Stockholm, and to a matched comparison group of Swedes, was based on data from 1975. National health statistics, available since the introduction of the Dental Insurance scheme in Sweden, were used. A longitudinal follow-up survey of utilization of dental services and secular changes in dental attendance in 1976-1980 by 1152 settled Finnish immigrants, selected in the afore mentioned way, and a Swedish comparison group was also done using the same information source. The results of the investigations can be summarized as follows: The clinical and questionnaire studies revealed poorer oral health i.e., number of teeth and more untreated caries in the group studied than has been shown in epidemiological surveys on Swedish populations. The questionnaire study showed that about 23% of the respondents had not visited a dentist in Sweden. These were often recently immigrated and had poor knowledge of Swedish. About 23% of the respondents had sometimes used the Finnish dental services and 5.5% did so regularly while living in Sweden.