Effects of fluoride and regular dental care on personal dental expenditures of young adults in Finland.

This paper analyzes the relationship among presence of fluoride in the drinking water, oral health and dental expenditures in four towns in Finland. A two-stage least-squares model is used to determine the effect of fluoridated water and other independent variables on the number of missing teeth and per capita annual dental service expenditures for 555 adults. The results show that regularity of dental visits is the only significant factor explaining per capita expenditures. In contrast, many factors affect the number of missing teeth; most importantly, the number of dentists per capita, level of fluoride, age, education, use of services and smoking habits. These findings suggest that fluoride significantly improves oral health status but does not reduce adult per capita dental expenditures.