20-year follow-up of patients receiving high-cost dental care within the Swedish Dental Insurance System: 1977-1978 to 1998-2000.

The objective was to perform a long-term follow-up study of patients that had received high cost dental care within the Swedish National Dental Insurance System in 1977-1978 with special focus on remaining teeth, periodontal disease progression, change in the prevalence of root-filled teeth and teeth with apical periodontitis as well as the survival of fixed prosthetic reconstructions. All 262 patients who had had their treatment plans sent for approval for high-cost dental care in 4 local health insurance districts and who were sampled for base-line studies in 1977-1978, were offered a free clinical examination including radiographs in 1998. 177 patients (68 % of the original sample) could be reached for telephone interview and 104 of them (40 % of the original sample) were examined clinically and radiographically. Comparisons were made with records and radiographs from 1977-1978. The analyses were performed with the individual patient as the studied unit. The low progression of severe periodontal disease during the 20-23 year follow-up period and the decrease in number of teeth with apical periodontitis among a majority of the patients examined, indicated that the dental care received resulted in a limitation of dental disease on the individual level. Furthermore 63 % of the patients had the fixed prosthetic reconstructions, received after approval 1977-1978, in full extention after 20-23 years. However, more tooth losses were observed among the patients in this study than in similar studies in Swedish general populations over the same decades. Furthermore multiple tooth extractions were significantly more frequent in patients with severe periodontitis at baseline and in patients with less apical periodontitis at follow-up in this study. Thus it seems that tooth extraction not seldom was a treatment choice for teeth with severe periodontitis and apical periodontitis among the patients examined clinically in this study.