Dental care continues shift from treatment to prevention; New study suggests dental benefits help ower incidence of dental disease.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 1996--The shift from restorative dental treatment to preventive care continues, according to the latest results of a new five-year study of dental treatment patterns by the state's largest dental carrier.

According to data that represent dental treatment of more than one in every three Californians, San Francisco-based Delta Dental Plan of California announced today that diagnostic and preventive dentistry is on the rise, while serious and costly restorative treatment continues to decline.

Diagnostic and preventive services reported by Delta dentists increased from 64.3 percent of total procedures in 1991 to 67.2 percent in 1995. During this same period, claims for simple restorations (fillings) decreased from 16.7 to 15.9 percent, oral surgery decreased from 3.9 to 3.5 percent, crown and cast procedures declined from 4.4 to 4.1 percent, and prosthodontic procedures (full or partial dentures) decreased from 3.2 to 2.5 percent.

Although these changes are represented by only a few percentage points, they are statistically significant considering each point represents millions of procedures performed on Californians with dental coverage.

The study upholds long-standing national trends toward improving oral health, and suggests that dentistry, along with the growth of dental benefits and other factors, limits the effects of dental disease. Fluoridation of water supplies and better dental hygiene are also credited for these trends.

"Dental benefits support prevention by encouraging people to visit their dentists nearly twice as often as those without such benefits," said R. Steven Bull, DDS, Delta's senior vice president of Public and Professional Services. "All too often, people who know they must bear the full cost of dental care postpone seeing a dentist until an advanced, and usually preventable, dental condition forces them to seek treatment."

In a related study conducted by the National Institute of Dental Research earlier this year, a remarkable drop in the incidence of children's cavities was noted over the past two decades. According to the report, the number of school-aged children without cavities in their permanent teeth has doubled since 1971.

Delta Dental Plan of California administers dental benefits for 12 million enrollees, making it the largest dental plan in California and the largest stand-alone dental plan in the United States. Last year, Delta reported gross revenues of $2.15 billion.

CONTACT: Jeff Album, 415/972-8418