Phase 3: 20% of Italians fear that they cannot afford the dentist

The health of the mouths of Italians during the lockdown has decreased: three million people have seen their periodontal pathologies worsen either because of poor oral hygiene or because they did not want or could go to the dentist. One in five, then, fear in the near future that they do not have enough money for visits and checks and may postpone them for at least a year. To say this is an investigation by the Key-Stone research institute on behalf of Sidp, the Italian Society of Periodontology and Implantology. According to an estimate of the same scientific society, 70 million visits provided each year could therefore be destined to decrease by one third. Not all, however, is lost: according to Sidp, teleodontology may be one of the answers.
   For Luca Landi, Sidp president, "the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to have serious repercussions on oral health with effects that could be even more serious than those of 2011, when about 2.5 million Italians were forced to give up the dentist. " According to Nicola Marco Sforza, president-elect Sidp, the reduction of a third would be attributable "also to the necessary safety procedures to be adopted, between minimizing the stay in the waiting room and sanitizing the rooms between a patient and the other". "This actually determines - he adds - an increase in the time needed for each visit". On the increase in the parcels, it is Landi who says "there is also a widespread and understandable fear". "But an increase in tariffs would entail a further problem of accessibility to simple and effective treatments to keep the gums healthy - continues President Sidp - Reducing the priority that prevention, oral hygiene and check-ups must have disaster for public health due to the systemic implications of gum disease, of which the weaker groups would be the first to do the shopping ". In Italy, 93% of dental services are provided by private practices, therefore, President Sidp points out, "not to stem the abandonment of dental checks and procedures would mean abdicating our role of social responsibility". Precisely for this reason the Sidp experts are trying to enhance the possibilities of teleconsultation, positively evaluated by 40% of Italians. "Sidp has long ago made available to patients an app to self-evaluate their own risk of having or developing gum disease.
Now we are considering how to integrate in this application the possibility of doing a remote control of patients already under treatment "he adds.