Exploring Dental Health and Its Economic Determinants in Romanian Regions

Abstract

Sustainable dental health is reflected in the high quality of the medical act and the high quality of the medical service, which cannot be achieved without considering the existing social context, especially the economic development of a state, where certain economic variables can become real levers of influence. The goal of this paper is twofold—theoretical and empirical. Firstly, at the theoretical level, we provide the context and the development of the health legal framework and the state of the Oral Health System and the provision of dental medical services in the eight Romanian Regions of Development. The second aim is to evaluate the relationship between dental health and well-being for the case of regions of Romania over the period 2001–2015. To review the dental health care in Romania, we will use descriptive analysis as the methodology, and to explore the relationship between dental health and economic determinants, we will use an econometric model, the OLS model. Our working hypothesis is that dental health care is influenced by the economic variables in a country. The results show a positive and significant relationship between dental health care and the most important indicator of well-being, the level of income. Of course, an important role is played by the complexity of education, expressed by research and development, which determines a significant positive relationship with dental health in the development regions of Romania.