Determining dental checkup frequency

Background, The authors assessed the dental checkup frequency of adults liv ing in the Detroit tricounty area and identified demographic, access and su bjective factors associated with visits to a dentist made not because of a dental problem. Methods. Data are from a 1994 probability based sample of adults who were i nterviewed and received an in-home oral examination. The authors used the v ariables of age, sex, education level, in-level, dental insurance status, u sual place for care, objective measures of oral health, and subjective asse ssments of health, pain and dental anxiety to predict the frequency of dent al checkups. Results, The authors found that differences in dental checkup behavior were related to demographics, access to dental care, subjective ratings of oral and general health and other self-assessments, and clinical parameters of oral health. In multiple logistic regression analysis considering all;varia bles simultaneously, sex, income, having a usual place for care and level o f dental. care anxiety were found to be associated with having dental check ups. The authors determined the statistical significance level at P < .05. Conclusions, A total of 69.7 percent of the study population reported havin g had a dental check-up at least once a year in the past five years. The au thors found that four factors associated with infrequent dental checkups: b eing male, having lower income levels, not having a usual place for care an d being anxious about receiving dental care. Practice Implications. Dental health professionals should consider the corr elates of dental checkup frequency identified in this study and the usefuln ess of proposed strategies to increase and sustain regular preventive visit ation patterns in their own patient populations.