Free Dental Services in Spain: New Government Initiative

In 2025, the Spanish Ministry of Health of Health will bring dental facilities into all health centers in the country. This country has its analogy to British National Health Centers – services that cover treatment for citizens from vulnerable and low-income people – and now the government plans to include a dental department in surgeries, which was previously unavailable to its patients.

At the start of their work, such departments will focus on four priority groups:

• kids under 14 years old
• pregnant women
• people with disabilities (they required a valid health card)
• adults with low income (depending on earnings compared to the minimum wage)

In these facilities, patients can expect to receive various invasive treatments (tooth extraction and surgical instructions), dental check-ups, minor mouth surgeries, emergency dental treatment (in case of severe pain or infections), etc.

Why it's important?

This initiative is a perfect example of the implementation of the "Global Strategy and Action Plan on Oral Health" provided by the World Health Organisation in 2024. According to this strategy, dentistry accessibility is a huge problem for people from low-income areas, and the WHO strongly recommends governments should provide initiatives to make dental healthcare more affordable for these groups.

Currently, this tendency is gaining momentum in Europe and the USA. Thus, many dental experts in the UK are worried about NHS accessibility, and the British Parliament has provided a fluoridation initiative nationwide, increasing people's oral health in the state.  

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