In Italy The gap between north and south It has been there for years and, unfortunately, it still continues to mark the country. Such inequalities They are very accepted if the focus on health is placed, with the south that always accuses a delay marked compared to the north. According to what emerged in an Istat research on families’s consumption in the two-year period 2022-2023, reworked by Key-Stone (research observatory specialized in the dental sector), in the South the families who give up going to the dentist They are about triple of those of the North, with the reasons that fall largely in the socio -economic differences of the two areas of the country.
Dental health, the South remains behind
As expressed by Francis Cairopresident of the Italian Society of periodontology and implantology, during the 22nd SIDP international congress held in Rimini, “in 2023 among families not in poverty (absolute and/or relative) there is an access rate (to dental care, editor’s note) around 69%, against 16% of families in conditions of poverty”.
“As known – added Cairo – in our country the oral health care They are borne by families, unless for a marginal offer of public health that guarantees assistance only to children up to 14 years of age and some categories of people in conditions of particular vulnerability both from an economic and health point of view “.
The general framework provided is aggravated if one focuses on differences regional. The national average of families who turn to the dentist is 61%, but 60% of these in the South does not have access to dental care. The data is about three times that of northern Italy, where the percentage drops to 26%. In the center, however, it is 34%.
Calabria worse region for access to dental care
From the data provided by Istat it is also possible to obtain a real ranking of the regions where you go more or less from the dentist.
At the top we find the Trentino Alto Adige where 84% of families have access to dental care, while the worst scenario affects the Calabriawith the percentage that collapses at 32%. This figure means that just over a third of Calabri citizens has regular access to dental care or controls. Without reaching the extreme cases positive and negative described, however different percentages are recorded for example between the Tuscany78%, and the Campania and the Sicilytwo other regions of the South in which only 37% and 36% of families manage to go to the dentist.
Scholarization as a driving care of dental care
Taking note of the depths of different existing in Italy between the north and south in terms of access to dental care, President Sidp Francesco Cairo underlined how the same are “in part, also attributable to the schooling rate and the working condition”. “It is observed – he added – that the rate of access to care is clearly higher when the qualification is the diploma or even more graduation, 69%and 87%respectively.
The request for protection tools for the poorest
As supported during the Congress of Rimini by the President of the Constitutional Court and the corresponding member of the National Accademia dei Lincei, Silvana SciarraFor eliminate these inequalities It is necessary to consider “the psycho-physical well-being of the individual in its entirety”. “Parliament-he added-changed the art. 33 of the Constitution, inserting the promotion of the psycho-physical well-being connected to sports activity.
There is therefore a request for intervention to the government so that the situation described can be eliminated, with the president Cairo who underlined the need for “investments in public health And greater prevention interventions starting from schools: just think that physical activity can reduce the risk of oral health problems of up to 28%, as well as improve many other chronic systemic diseases “.
