Dental Services: Use, Expenditures and Sources of Payment, 1987

Oral Health in Older Adults -An Overlooked Issue

“…Only 10 percent of dental expenditures were paid by private insurance, and 79 percent were paid out of pocket [22]. The importance of third party coverage is highlighted by the fact that older adults with dental insurance are 2.5 times more likely to make regular dental visits, significantly more likely to be dentate, with more natural teeth remaining, and to hold more favorable oral health beliefs [23]. These findings suggest that providing older adults with dental insurance (whether this is private coverage or Public) may serve as an enabler of dental service utilization.…”

Investigation of the frequency and distribution of teeth requiring endodontic treatment and endodontically treated teeth

“…5,6 Endodontic services constitues 3% of all dental procedures. 8,9 When planning dental health services, it is essential to estimate the need for dental treatment in the population. Epidemiological studies based on radiographic examinations combined with limited clinical examinations have been used for such estimations.…”

Use of specific dental treatment procedures by dentate adults during a 24‐month period

“…One recent cross‐sectional analysis of specific dental service use suggested that African‐Americans and poor people were less likely to receive dental preventive procedures, and more likely to receive oral surgical services (9). Although one randomized trial of dental insurance did report some analysis regarding racial and income differences in receipt of specific types of dental treatment procedures (10), to our knowledge, no longitudinal study has focused on these differences.…”