Next year, the waiting time for adult patients with extreme dental problems may be even longer. Fremskrittsparti (Frp) believes the dental care will be better, and cheaper.
Since 2008, there has been a practice that people receiving dental care have been able to be reimbursed about three-quarters of the expenses from private dentists.
From the New Year, they will have to queue with the public, or pay full price at private care dentists’, wrote Aftenposten newspaper.
Dental scare – odontophobia in the language of the profession – belongs to the group of ‘persons with a very reduced ability to self-care’. In 2012, this accounted for 1.1% of payments in dental treatment.
By 2016, the percentage had increased to 8.6%. The Ministry of Health have justified the decision with a large increase in refund payments, and indicated that many payments were not made in accordance with regulations.
700 such patients are treated each year. They have waited between six months, and two years for treatment. Dentists fear that waiting times will increase steeply.
‘As a consequence, many patients will not be offered treatment,’ said President of the Norwegian Dental Association, Camilla Hansen Steinum.
‘The offer becomes free where it was intended to be given, namely through the county authorities. Patients with odontophobia will therefore get a better, and cheaper, offer from the New Year,’ said State Secretary, Line Miriam Sandberg of Frp.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
