REGIONAL AND ALL-UKRAINIAN FEATURES OF THE ORGANIZATION OF DENTAL CARE FOR CHILDREN: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY TO DEVELOP WAYS TO STRENGTHEN DENTAL PUBLIC HEALTH

Abstract

Topicality. The state of dental public health in children is a serious medical and social problem, which iscaused by the high prevalence of oral diseases among children and adolescents. Such diseases not only worsen the qualityof life, but also contribute to an increased risk of developing non-communicable diseases due to common risk factors. Inaddition, they increase socio-economic inequalities in access to dental services and create a significant financial burdenon both families and the health care system as a whole.Objective: Determination of regional and national features of structural and dynamic indicators of the organizationof dental care for the child population to develop ways to strengthen dental public health.Materials and methods. The organization of dental care for children was studied according to the data of the national sectoral statistical reporting of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine on the main indicators of the activity of the dental servicefor 2018–2022. Statistical data of the Ministry of Health system presented on the website of the State Institution “Center for Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” (http://medstat.gov.ua/ukr/statdanMMXIX.html) and information from the directories “Dental Care in Ukraine: Analysis of Main Indicators of Activity” for 2018–2022 were used.A set of descriptive and analytical statistical methods, as well as the comparative analysis method, was used. For statistical comparison of values, clarity indicators were used. Statistical processing was carried out using Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel (https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/free-office-online-for-the-web).Results. Analysis of national statistical reporting for 2018–2022 revealed a significant deterioration in the organizationof dental care for children in Ukraine. Of particular concern is the reduction in the number of pediatric dentists in statemedical institutions, which decreased by 27.3% on average, and in the Dnipropetrovsk region by 44.4%. This directly affected the decrease in the number of children visiting dentists and the quality of preventive measures.At the same time, the proportion of children in need of rehabilitation increased from 48.7% to 60.8%, while thenumber of actually sanitized patients decreased by almost 81%. The public sector is not keeping up with the growingneeds, which stimulates the transfer of patients to private clinics, where growth rates significantly exceed public ones.An increase in the share of complicated caries was also found, which is a consequence of a decrease in preventive services. At the same time, there is a shortage of high-quality statistical and epidemiological data, which indicates theneed for digitalization of accounting and monitoring of children's health.Conclusions. The identified significant negative trends in staffing, the volume of dental services provided to children, and the accessibility of dental care indicate an urgent need to increase the effectiveness of prevention of oral diseasesamong children and adolescents and increase the preventive potential of dental services and the need to develop the dental public health sector.