Essential dental care

What is essential dental care?

Essential dental care is intended primarily to help achieve a marked improvement in the ability to eat, to relieve pain and keep infections to a minimum. The dental care required is decided individually based on general status, dental health and potential benefit for the patient.

The patient is entitled to decide who is to carry out the essential dental care.

Who can have essential dental care?

Section 8 a of the Dental Services Act (1985:125) defines who can benefit from outreach activities including oral assessment and essential dental care. In brief, these are:

Those in receipt of community service and nursing care in the form of special residential provisions.
Those in receipt of service and nursing care for much of the day in their own homes.
Those who are entitled to support and service for certain functionally impaired persons (LSS - the Swedish law on support and service for certain functionally impaired persons).
Those with mental functional impairment, as a result of which they are unable to care for themselves.

It is not the need for dental care, but the personal need for care that determines whether or not a patient can have an oral assessment. See also: "Certificate of essential dental care".