Background: This study evaluates whether exposure to dental X-ray examinations in childhood and adolescence results in negative health effects.

Material and methods: This systematic review includes both primary studies and systematic reviews available in Medline, Embase, and Web of Science databases. Six reviewers read the full text of the selected studies.

Results: The literature search resulted in 10,949 publications. After title and abstract screening, 55 publications were selected for full text reading, resulting in a total of 18 reports, 7 systematic reviews, and 11 primary studies for quality assessment.

Conclusion: None of the selected studies passed the quality assessment due to high or very high risk of bias. There is a gap of knowledge regarding negative effects of dental X-rays and a need for more accurate and updated studies.

Objectives: Children in out-of-home care (OHC) are at greater risk of ill health than other children in the community. The aim of this registry-based cohort study was to compare the oral health and dental care needs of children in OHC with those of other children in Sweden, by merging data from different Swedish registries. A further aim was to analyse whether children in OHC received more dental examinations after 2017, following implementation of a law requiring mandatory health evaluations prior to placement.

Methods: We identified an exposed cohort of Swedish children and young people, 0–19 years old, who had been placed in OHC 2010–2018 ( N  = 50,878), and an unexposed cohort, five times larger, matched for age, sex and county of residence ( N  = 254,380). During the study period, children in OHC received relatively fewer regular, scheduled dental examinations (4.21 vs. 4.88; p  < 0.0001). More children entering OHC in 2018 received dental examinations (81.7%) compared with 2016 (76.6%) ( p  < 0.0001), but this was still lower than the proportion of controls. Moreover, during the study period, dental caries affected more teeth in children in OHC than in the controls (dft 6-year-olds 1.56 vs. 0.74; p  < 0.0001, and DFT 12-year-olds 1.18 vs. 0.65; p  < 0.0001), and they had more extractions and more emergency dental appointments than children who had never been in OHC.

Conclusion: Not only do children in OHC have poorer oral health than other children, they also receive less support from the dental health services. It seems that society has failed in its mission to ensure that children in OHC are not disadvantaged with respect to health and access to comprehensive healthcare. Thus, there is an urgent need for reappraisal of guidelines, legislation, and organizational models for providing dental care to children and adolescents in OHC.

Objectives This study evaluates the agreement of data on dental caries between electronic dental records and data retrieved from the national SKaPa-registry (Swedish Quality Registry for caries and periodontal disease), with special reference to e/M in deft/DMFT.

Methods In a random sample of 500 6- and 12-year-old children having received dental care in 2014 in the county region of Värmland, Sweden, the diagnostic accuracy of data in electronic dental records with corresponding data obtained from the SKaPa-registry was compared by using Cohen’s Kappa and Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Results For dft/DFT the Kappa was 0.95, and ICC 0.98 (total population). For deft/DMFT in the total population the Kappa was 0.80 and ICC 0.96. For 6-year-olds (deft) the Kappa was 0.89 and ICC 0.99 and for 12-year-olds (DMFT) the Kappa was 0.70, and ICC 0.83. The corresponding figures for Kappa and ICC when excluding individuals without caries (deft/DMFT = 0) were: Total population 0.63 and 0.94; 6-year-olds 0.79 and 0.99; 12-year-olds 0.42 and 0.68.

Conclusion Agreement between data in the dental records and SKaPa was very high for dft/DFT confirming that transfer from the dental records to the SKaPa-registry is safe and correct. As the accuracy of deft/DMFT was considerably lower than for dft/DFT we advise against using deft/DMFT data from SKaPa for research purposes at this point.

Objective To study the influence of demographic and organizational factors to antibiotic utilization in dental implant surgery in Sweden. Material and methods Descriptive statistics regarding antibiotic prescription between 2009 and 2019 was retrieved from two national registers, the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register and the Dental Health register, both administered by the National Board of Health and Welfare. Results During the years 2009-2019 a significant decrease of the proportion of prescriptions of systemic antibiotics in conjunction with implant surgical procedures occurred in all patient groups where the most common procedure was the insertion of a single implant. The proportion of dental visits when implant surgical treatment was performed which resulted in a prescription of antibiotics decreased significantly from 1/3 to approximately 1/5. However, comparing Public and Private dental care providers, the reduction was significantly greater in Public dental care. Patients with low level of education in urban regions, treated in Private dental clinics were more likely to receive antibiotics in conjunction to implant surgery compared to other groups. Phenoxymethylpenicillin is the most widely used substance in conjunction with implant surgery. Conclusion There is still room for improvement in reduction of antibiotic prescriptions in conjunction to implant surgical procedures in Sweden.

Background

The Swedish Quality Registry for caries and periodontal disease (SKaPa) automatically collects data on caries and periodontitis from patients’ electronic dental records. Provided the data entries are reliable and accurate, the registry has potential value as a data source for registry-based research. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of the SKaPa registry information on dental caries in 6- and 12-year-old children.

Method

This diagnostic accuracy study compared dental caries data registered at an examination with dental health status registered in the patient’s electronic dental records, and with corresponding data retrieved from the SKaPa registry. Clinical examinations of 170 6- and 12-year-old children were undertaken by one of the researchers in conjunction with the children’s regular annual dental examinations where the number of teeth were registered, and dental caries was diagnosed using ICDAS II. Teeth with fillings were defined as filled and were added to the ICDAS II score and subsequently dft/DFT was calculated for each individual. Cohen’s Kappa, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and sensitivity and specificity were calculated to test the agreement of the ‘decayed and filled teeth’ in deciduous and permanent teeth (dft/DFT) from the three sources.

Results

Cohen’s Kappa of the dft/DFT-values was calculated to 0.79 between the researcher and the patient record, to 0.95 between patient dental record and SKaPa, and to 0.76 between the researcher and SKaPa. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated to 0.96 between the researcher and the patient journal, to 0.99 between the patient dental record vs. SKaPa, and to 0.95 between the researcher and SKaPa.

Conclusion

The SKaPa registry information demonstrated satisfactory reliability and accuracy on dental caries in 6- and 12-year-old children and is a reliable source for registry-based research.

Objective: To study the effect of governmental strategies, to constitute and publish recommendations on antibiotic usage in dentistry, on the antibiotic consumption.

Material and methods: Descriptive statistics regarding antibiotic prescription between 2009 and 2017 was retrieved from two national registers, the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register and the Dental Health register, both administered by the National Board of Health and Welfare. Age standardization was applied to alleviate the comparison between gender, different regions and years.

Results: The number of dispatched prescriptions of antibiotics from dentists was reduced with 31% during the study period. 10% of the visits to a dentist generated an antibiotic prescription corresponding to 7% of the total number of antibiotic prescriptions. A decline in prescription was observed after publication of national recommendations for antibiotics prophylaxis in 2012 and antibiotic treatment in 2014. Unexplained geographical and gender differences in the rates of prescription were seen.

Conclusions: Data indicates a correlation between introduction of governmental strategies to reduce antibiotic usage and declining antibiotic prescription. Although a marked reduction in prescription was observed, the results indicate that there is further potential for improvement of antibiotic stewardship in odontology.

We used Swedish national registers to analyse dental health care among young adults with childhood experience of out‐of‐home care (OHC), in Cox regression analyses. All 1.7 million Swedish residents born in 1980–1994 were included, of whom 4% had been in OHC. The population was followed up in the Dental Health Register from age 20 to 29, during the period 2009–2014. We found that persons with short or long OHC experience made emergency dental care visits more often than their majority‐population peers: 17–23% versus 9–10%, (adjusted Hazard ratios [HR:s] 1.60–2.02); they more often had tooth extractions, 9–12% versus 3% (HR:s 2.33–3.03); but less regularly visited a dentist for planned check‐ups, 61–77% versus 80–87% (HR:s 0.76–0.78). Since dental health in young adulthood reflects dental health and dental care in childhood, the findings of this study call for improved preventive dental health care for children in OHC.

Planering och styrning av tandvård på nationell nivå bör baseras på utvärderingar av jämlik fördelning, effektivitet och kostnader. Med inrättandet av tandhälsoregistret vid Socialstyrelsen öppnas möjligheter för studier av tandvårdens processer och resultat. Syftet med studien var att utifrån två identifierade kohorter longitudinellt följa och analysera frekvens och kostnader för ny fyllning eller tandkrona på tidigare restaurerad tand (omgörningar) samt relationen mellan förebyggande tandvårdsåtgärder i relation till reparativ och restaurativ tandvård orsakad av karies. Med hjälp av tandhälsoregistret studerades två kohorter omfattande den vuxna befolkningen. En longitudinell modell användes för uppföljning. I den första kohorten följdes 1 878 887 tänder hos 1 088 923 patienter mellan 42 och 48 månader. I den andra kohorten följdes 1 703 147 patienter under en period av mellan 48 och 54 månader. Fördelning av tandvård för olika åldersgrupper visade att kohorterna var representativa för hela patientgruppen. Fördelning av tandvårdsbesök varierade mellan 140 och 160 räknat per 1 000 invånare trots olika geografiska förutsättningar. Resultaten baserade på den första kohorten visar att 76% av tänderna inte fick någon ytterligare åtgärd med fyllning eller tandkrona under uppföljningsperioden, och att för resterande 24% av tänderna fick 77% endast en ny åtgärd. Det förelåg ingen könsskillnad, däremot skillnader på upp till tre intakta tänder mellan olika regioner. Resultat från den andra kohorten visade heller ingen könsskillnad. De genomsnittliga kostnaderna för reparativa åtgärder på grund av karies ökade gradvis i relation till ökade kostnader för förebyggande åtgärder. Vidare var kostnaderna för reparativa åtgärder lägre ju längre tid som följde mellan förebyggande åtgärder. Det nationella tandhälsoregistret utgör en värdefull källa för forskning om tandvård. Longitudinella registerdata för reparationer och preventiva åtgärder kan användas för att studera effektivitet, kostnader och jämlik fördelning av tandvård. Resultaten har en potential för förbättrad styrning av tandvården.

At a national level, planning and management of dental services should be based on assessments of equity, effectiveness and costs. In Sweden, data for the adult population are now accessible through The Swedish dental health register, at The National Board of Health and Welfare. This study, on two large cohorts of Swedish adults, is based on longitudinal follow-up data, retrieved from the Swedish dental health register. The aims were twofold:to assess frequencies and costs of fillings and crowns, including subsequent repair; secondly to study the relationship between preventive and restorative dental treatment. The Swedish dental health register provides data on the adult population which offers a new perspective on public health aspects of management of dental care at the national level. A longitudinal, prospective study model was used to follow-up two large cohorts for over four years. In the first cohort, data on 1,088,923 adult patients were analysed with reference to provision of single crowns and fillings over a period of 42 - 48 months. The second cohort comprised 1,703,147 adult patients:the data were analysed with reference to preventive interventions over a period of 48 - 54 months. Frequencies of distribution of dental care by age group showed that the cohorts were representative for the whole patient group. With respect to equity, the average number of dentist appointments per -1,00o inhabitants for all 21 regions of Sweden was 140 to 160, despite major variations in geographic conditions and population densities. With respect to effectiveness, about 76% of the teeth with index interventions required no additional intervention over four consecutive years of follow-up. For the remaining 24% of the teeth 77% had only one additional intervention. When differences of case -mix were taken into account, the costs of repairs to earlier interventions were basically similar, regardless of age-group.There were no gender differences. However, there were pronounced differences, of up to three intact teeth, among patients from different regions of Sweden. Follow-up of effects of caries prevention showed no gender differences. However, costs for reparative interventions increased with higher costs for preventive treatment. Moreover, the longer the interval between preventive interventions, the lower the costs for reparative interventions.The national dental health register is a potentially valuable source of data for dental research. In this study, longitudinal registry data on restorative and preventive treatment were retrieved and analysed, with reference to efficacy, costs and equity. The results have potential application in improving management of public dental health.