Users Of Dental Services Research Articles

Subjective need of removable denture treatment in Finnish adults.

The aim of this study was to analyse the clinical dental health, use of dental services and socio-economic factors correlating with the subjective need for removable dentures in Finnish adults aged 30 years and older. A total of 2528 persons who had lost one or more natural teeth (wisdom teeth excluded) and who had not been provided with any dentures, were selected for this study. Subjects who had subjective need for prosthetic treatment had statistically significantly fewer teeth and fewer fillings, and more decayed teeth than others. Irregular users of dental services felt the need for a prosthesis more often than did regular users of those services. Irregular brushing of teeth was also associated with a greater need for prosthetic treatment. Men, older individuals and persons with less education and a smaller family income felt the need for prosthetic treatment more often than women, younger individuals and better educated persons. The factors differentiating between the two groups with and without a subjective prosthetic treatment need were analysed by discriminant analysis. The best differentiating factors were frequency of dental visits, caries score, frequency of brushing teeth, family income, number of fillings and sex.

Irregular users of dental services among Norwegian adults.

In 1979-80 a nationwide random sample of 1511 Norwegians, aged 16-79 years, were asked a series of questions about dental health and related factors (behavior, attitude, knowledge, social network, interpersonal communication, and 'health locus of control'). The purposes of the study were to describe the irregular users of dental services and to find mutable factors that could distinguish the regular from the irregular users. 17.4% of the dentate women and 21.7% of the men reported visiting the dentist less than once a year. Among the background variables, age and income/education were the most powerful predictors of use of dental services. Different patterns of behavioral characteristics were found among women as compared with men. The mutable factors that made a significant distinction between the regular and irregular users were use of interdental remedies, use of fluoride, social network, and health attitude (only among women). To a great extent, sociopsychologic and behavioral factors seemed to act through the demographic and economic variables in predicting the regularity of dental attendance.