Table 1.

Summary of public-funded dental care services for the older adults in Hong Kong.

Aspects	Government Dental Service	Outreach Dental Care Programme (ODCP)	Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Dental Grant	Community Care Fund (CCF) Elderly Dental Assistance Programme	Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme (HCVS)
Establishment	Since 1950	Since 2011	Since 1980	Since 2012	Since 2009
Eligibility	Persons with emergency dental treatment needs Public hospital in-patients with dental treatment needs	Older adults residing in residential care homes or using day-care service	CSSA recipients aged 60 years or above	Older adults aged 60 years or above, non-CSSA recipients but are covered by the subsidized community or home care services schemes Recipients of the Old Age Living Allowance	Older adults aged 65 years or above
Required to pass a means-test	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Service scope	Emergency dental care, such as tooth extraction, pain relief and treatment of oral abscess	Oral health education On-site basic dental care, including dental check-up, scaling and emergency treatments Further treatments in dental clinic, including filling, tooth extraction, and denture	Tooth extraction, scaling, filling, root canal treatment, denture, and fixed dental prosthesis	Removable denture and denture-related services	Private primary healthcare services, including dental service
Service providers and venue	Government dentists; 11 government dental clinics and 7 public hospitals	Private dentists working for NGOs; LTC facilities and NGO dental clinics	Private dentists; Designated NGO dental clinics and private dental clinics	Private dentists; NGO and private dental clinics	Private dentists; NGO and private dental clinics
No. of beneficiary in a year *	20,164	44,514	Not reported	9746	Not reported
Amount of subsidy per user **	Not applicable	Onsite service: HK$ 500 Further treatment: maximum amount set for each treatment item	A maximum amount set for each approved treatment item	Maximum: HK$ 15,350	HK$ 2000 per year; Can accumulate up to a ceiling of HK$ 8000

* Estimates based on the reports of the programmes. ** Exchange rate: 1 USD = HK$ 7.8.