Improvement of Accessibility to Dental Care due to Expansion of National Health Insurance Coverage for Scaling in South Korea

Huh,  Jisun; Nam,  SooHyun; Lee,  Bora; Hu,  Kyung-Seok; Jung,  Il-Young; Choi,  Seong-Ho; Lee,  Jue Yeon

J Korean Dent Assoc > Volume 57(11); 2019 > Article

The Journal of The Korean Dental Association 2019;57(11):644-653.
Published online November 30, 2019.

치석제거 요양급여 확대 정책으로 인한 치과의료 접근성 향상

허지선¹, 남수현², 이보라³, 허경석⁴, 정일영⁵, 최성호⁶, 이주연⁷

^¹연세대학교 치과대학 치의학교육학교실
^²연세대학교 치과대학
^³연세대학교 치과대학 치의학교육학교실
^⁴연세대학교 치과대학 치의학교육학교실
^⁵연세대학교 치과대학 보존과학교실
^⁶연세대학교 치과대학 치주과학교실
^⁷연세대학교 치과대학 예방치과학교실

Improvement of Accessibility to Dental Care due to Expansion of National Health Insurance Coverage for Scaling in South Korea

Jisun Huh¹, SooHyun Nam², Bora Lee³, Kyung-Seok Hu⁴, Il-Young Jung⁵, Seong-Ho Choi⁶, Jue Yeon Lee⁷

¹Department of Dental Education, Yonsei University College of Dentistry
²Yonsei University College of Dentistry
³Department of Dental Education, Yonsei University College of Dentistry
⁴Department of Dental Education, Yonsei University College of Dentistry
⁵Department of Conservative Dentistry, Yonsei University College of Dentistry
⁶Department of Periodontology, Yonsei University College of Dentistry
⁷Department of Preventive Dentistry and Public Health, Yonsei University College of Dentistry

Abstract

Since 2013, adults aged over 20 can receive national health insurance scaling once a year in South Korea. In this study, we analyzed the usage status of national health insurance care service for periodontal disease in 2010-2018 by using Healthcare big data of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. The increase rate of the dental care users was very high at 7.8 and 11.2% in 2013 and 2014, respectively. These are higher than the increase rate of all medical institution users, which is between -1.7 and 3.7%. In 2017, the rate of dental use was 44.4%, which has increased more than 10% compared to 2012. Percent receiver of national health insurance scaling was 19.5% in 2017. The 20s had the highest rate of 23.2%. The rate decreased with age. Based on these results, it can be evaluated that the expansion of national health insurance coverage for scaling improves accessibility to dental care. A more long-term assessment of the effect of periodic dental examination and scaling on reducing the prevalence of periodontal disease is needed. National health insurance coverage should be extended to oral hygiene education and supportive periodontal therapy in order to prevent periodontal disease.

Key Words: Scaling;National Health Insurance;Healthcare Big data;Periodontal disease;South Korea;