Mythos Schweiz: Meinungen und Fakten zur Mundgesundheit in der Schweiz im Vergleich zu Deutschland

zerland compared to Germany. The oral health of the German and the Swiss population is - despite of controversial allegations - not significantly different. Oral health is dependent on several endogenous genetically determined factors and systemic diseases as well as on numerous exogenous influences. A simple reduction of this complex connection to individual factors (such as tooth brushing) and a subsequent deduction of the principle that dental lesions are of one's own making does not meet the various dimensions of oral health and disease. Oral health and disease are rather associated with numerous dental or medical and socio-economic factors. The annual per capita expenses for dentistry in Germany and Switzerland are nearly equal in spite of different reimbursement systems. There is not convincing evidence for the idea that financial pressure due to patients' out-of-pocket payments will improve oral health, neither in Germany nor in Switzerland.