39
Volume2 Issue1
|
S
upporting
Y
our
P
ractice
Fig.1:
Self-reporteddental carevisitsandcostbarriers todental care inCanada.
A teamof researchersconductedamacroeconomic reviewofdentistry inCanada in the
2000s. Theirfindingswerepresented inaClinicalReviewarticleonJCDA.ca in2014.CDA
discussed the researchwithoneof theauthorsDr.CarlosQuiñonez,associateprofessorand
directorof thedentalpublichealthprogramat theUniversityofToronto.
Whatdidyouwant toexaminewith thisstudy?
Over 20yearsago,Dr. JamesLeake,mypredecessor indental publichealthat the
Universityof Toronto, beganprovidingmacroeconomic reviewsof thedental care
market inCanada. Alongwithhis students, heexamined the timeperiodsof 1960–80,
the1980s, and the1990s. Thesearticleswerehighly influential inmyacademic life,
so Iwanted tocontinuehisexcellentworkgiven the solidanalytical frameworkhe
provided.
In short, reviewing theeconomicsof thedental caremarket fromamacroperspective
is important inorder forus tounderstand trends in spending, human resources,
utilization, access tocareandultimatelypublicpolicy.
Whataresomeof thekeyfindingsofyour study?
Dental care spendingcontinues to increaseyearover year,withagreaterproportion
of this spendingcoming fromout-of-pocket expenditures, asopposed toprivateor
public insurance. The roleofprivate insurance isactuallydiminishing, and therehas
beena rise ingovernment investments indental care—although in relative terms,
these investments still remainquite small. So small in fact thatCanadanow ranks
behind theU.S. in termsofper capita spendingonpubliclyfinanceddental care.
Thepercentageof thepopulationvisiting thedentisthas steadily increased,while
self-reportedfinancial barriers todental carealso increased (
Fig. 1
). Thenumberof
AMACROECONOMICREVIEW
ofDentistry inCanada in the 2000s
The following is based on a research article originally published in
the ‘Clinical Review’ section of
jcda.ca
—CDA’s online, open access
scholarly publication that features articles indexed inMedline,
Journal CitationReports and ScienceCitation Index.
ChantelRamraj
MSc
EleanorWeitzner
MSc
RafaelFigueiredo
DDS,MSc
CarlosQuiñonez
DMD,MSc,PhD,FRCD(C)
Clinical Summary
Self-reported
costbarriers
todental care
increasedslightly
from
15%
in2001
to
17.3%
in2009
Overthestudyperiod,
theprevalenceof
self-reporteddental
visits increased
from
60.3%
in2001
to
75.5%
in2009
Sources: StatisticsCanada,HealthCanada.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Self-reportedcostbarriers
todental care
Self-reportedvisits to the
dentist in thepast year
63.8
75.5
19.2
17.3
60.3
15
2001
2005
2009
%ofpopulation
0
10
20
30
40
Self-reportedcostbarriers
todental care
Self-reportedvisits to the
dentist in thepast year
19.2
17.3
15
2001
2005
2009
%ofpopulation
