Varsinais-Suomi drops mobile dental clinic over higher costs

Varsinais-Suomi’s wellbeing services county abandoned plans to acquire a mobile dental clinic after calculating that it would cost more than a conventional treatment facility, Yle reports.

Wellbeing services counties across Finland have closed dental clinics and replaced them with mobile dental units. However, Yle found that there is no comprehensive national comparison of the costs and number of visits for mobile and fixed dental clinics.

Mobile dental clinics have been acquired by at least the wellbeing services counties of Satakunta, North Ostrobothnia and North Karelia. Satakunta estimates that one mobile unit saves 27,700 euros a year compared with a fixed treatment room.

Varsinais-Suomi’s wellbeing services county, known as Varha, decided against acquiring a mobile dental clinic after concluding that it would have been more expensive than building fixed treatment rooms, says Mikko Pakarinen, director of an operational division.

“Acquiring a mobile dental clinic would have been an expensive investment,” says Marina Merne-Grafström, director of oral healthcare at Varha. The investment would also have involved additional costs.

Satakunta estimates annual savings of 27,700 euros

At Yle’s request, the Satakunta wellbeing services county calculated its own estimate of the savings. Its Hampuli mobile dental clinic has been in use for just over a year. It operates in areas where dental clinics have been closed and moves to a new location every three weeks.

Eight dental clinics were closed in Satakunta in 2024 and 2025. According to Katja Lepistö, head of oral healthcare, the mobile unit saves 27,700 euros a year compared with a fixed treatment room.

The estimate compares the costs of acquiring and operating the mobile unit with the costs of acquiring and operating a new treatment room during the first year of use. Lepistö could not provide Yle with the annual cost of a single fixed treatment room.

Exact savings remain unclear elsewhere

The wellbeing services counties of North Ostrobothnia and North Karelia are also convinced that mobile dental services have produced savings, although they do not know the exact amounts.

“Calculating the savings is difficult because different locations have other varying costs in addition to the unit. Personnel costs also differ between professional groups,” says Pia Piispanen, director of oral healthcare in North Ostrobothnia. The region has two mobile dental clinics.

In North Karelia, mobile services have replaced small dental clinics, says Virva Vänttinen, the region’s chief dental officer. The closed clinics had largely relied on expensive temporary dental staff because permanent positions could not be filled.

Permanent staff now travel to these areas using mobile equipment, Vänttinen says. Dental treatment containers have also been acquired to replace clinics with indoor air problems. In those cases, the mobile service was cheaper than quickly building a new clinic.

Mobile clinics also provide indirect financial benefits, Vänttinen says. Schoolchildren can have dental examinations in their schoolyard, while older people can be treated in the yard of a care home instead of being transported to a dentist.

Varha is building fixed treatment rooms

Varsinais-Suomi is also closing dental clinics, but is building treatment rooms in places such as social and healthcare centres instead of acquiring a mobile unit.

“My view is that this provides a broader range of services. The service network in Varsinais-Suomi is fairly dense, so distances do not become unreasonably long,” Merne-Grafström says.

Varha uses mobile services to some extent for schoolchildren’s dental examinations. It already has eight suitcase-style pop-up dental clinics that operate in school premises.