Greek financial crisis hits oral health
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- Published: Tuesday, 17 November 2015 07:53
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Europe's statistical agency Eurostat has reported that by most indicators of oral health, Greece is one of the unhealthiest places in Europe. The number of Greeks 16 years or older reporting unmet dental care needs was 10.6% in 2013. That compares to a European Union average of 7.9%. More than 8% of Greeks skipped dentist visits in 2013 because it was too expensive, well above the 5.1% European average, according to Eurostat.
Dental problems are particularly acute among children, according to a recent survey by the Hellenic Dental Federation, a supervisory body. In the decade up to 2014, 60% of all dental problems in 15-year-olds were left untreated for at least a year, up from 44% in the previous decade. Almost all the five-year-olds surveyed – 86.8% – suffered dental problems that had not been treated, the survey found.
"Teeth are unfortunately considered a luxury," said Niki Diamanti, a dentist who works at Hatzikosta Hospital, one of two public hospitals in the northwestern town of Ioannina. "If, five years ago, people went to the dentist once a year, now they go every five years." Because so many people find private care unaffordable Diamanti says she now sometimes sees as many as 20 patients in one day. At private practices it costs 30 to 50 euros for a filling, 150 euros for root canal treatment, and 200 euros for a crown. For Greeks with national health insurance, treatment in a public hospital costs much less. But only two of 199 dentists in Ioannina take such patients, meaning appointments can take months to secure. Many people join the long lines at hospital emergency rooms, or wait until a rotting tooth needs to be pulled, Diamanti said.
In Greece dental problems are not primarily caused by changes in daily oral hygiene, experts say. Rather, children are developing oral diseases for reasons related to the country's six-year economic depression. Disposable incomes in Greece have shrunk by about 30 percent since 2009. More than 1.2 million Greeks – one in four working-age people – are unemployed. Forty percent of children live in poverty, according to the UN children's agency UNICEF, more than in places such as Chile, Turkey and Mexico.
As well, the publicly funded system of free or low-cost medical care that millions of Greeks relied on for decades has shrunk, largely because of public spending cuts demanded in exchange for the 326 billion euros in financial aid Greece has received since 2010. Per capita health spending fell 9% a year between 2009 and 2012.
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