Number of people in Portugal that don’t go to the dentist increases

A national survey of oral health, conducted in 2018, revealed that the number of Portuguese people that don’t go to the dentist is increasing.

More than 30% of the population say that they never go to the dentist, or rather, they go only in the case of an emergency. This is an increase of 3% compared to last year, with 41% of Portugal not going to a dental consultation for more than a year.

53.6% of those interviewed said they feel no need to go to dental appointments, a figure that has risen from 44.5% in the previous edition of the survey. 31.7% say they don’t have the money to do so, a figure that contrasts with the 42.8% recorded last year. There is still 11.6% who consider that they have no dental problems.

However, 70% of Portuguese people are already without at least one natural tooth (not counting wisdom teeth) and, of these, 35% have already lost six or more. There are still 8.2% of the Portuguese population who do not have any natural teeth left and among those, 55.5% do not have false teeth.

These are some of the statistics from this national survey of oral health produced by the independent consultant QSP for the OMD (Ordem dos Médicos Dentistas – Portuguese Dentists Association).

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