The Dutch pay much more attention to the health of their teeth (83% of them have consulted their dentist in one year), ahead of the Danes (78%), Luxembourgers (77%) and Germans (77%).
The French are below the European average since 57% of European citizens have consulted a dentist in the last year. The poor performers are Romanians (34%) and Hungarians (35%).
The Eurobarometer also reveals that a majority of French people have at least one fake tooth. Thus, only 34% of French people say they have all their original teeth. Very few Hungarians have only natural teeth (19%), ahead of Estonians (27%) and Poles (28%). Note that 41% of the entire European panel is provided with all of its original teeth.
Another observation: Europeans are only 31% to wear removable dentures. The English lead the ranking with more than 38% of the population endowed with dentures, ahead of the Poles (37%), the Portuguese (37%) and the Belgians (37%).
Half of Europeans indicate that their last visit to a dentist was motivated by a check-up, a routine examination or a scaling. A third of Europeans consulted it for trivial treatment and nearly one in five Europeans for emergency treatment.
Finally, the three reasons given for not having consulted a dentist during the last two years are minor dental problems (33%), the fact of not having teeth or false teeth (16%) and the price expensive dental examinations and treatments (15%).
This first Eurobarometer was carried out in October 2009 in the 27 Member States of the European Union and in the three candidate countries (Turkey, Macedonia, Croatia).
