Caries-preventive methods used for children and adolescents in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden

Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden have all had a similar decline in dent al caries during the last 20 years, although the decline has come later in Iceland. The purpose of this study was to compare the caries-preventive met hods used for children and adolescents in these four countries. Questionnai res were sent to random samples of dentists, dental hygienists, and dental nurses working with children during 1995 and 1996. The results showed that the use of preventive methods was generally consistent between the countrie s. Nevertheless there were differences between the countries concerning the choice of preventive strategy for risk patients and also in how prevention was implemented. Danish dental care providers chose oral hygiene education as the priority, which they put into practice. Apart from fluoride varnish for some patients, most of them did not use or recommend fluoride except f luoride toothpaste. The Norwegian and Icelandic dental care providers chose both oral hygiene education and the use of fluoride as priorities, while m ost Swedish dental care providers preferred to provide dietary advice and o ral hygiene education, and additional fluoride for risk patients. The diffe rences could not be explained by other variables than nationality, implying that there are differences between the dental cultures in the four countri es. The informational basis of decisions on preventive strategies varied be tween the different dental professionals in each country as well as between the countries, indicating that national professional cultures are being sh aped differently Despite the differences in choice of preventive methods, t he dental health of children varies little across the frontiers, This raise s the question of the significance of the choice of preventive methods to t he decline of dental caries and points towards an urgent need to develop ev idence-based preventive strategies.