Factors affecting dental service utilisation among older adults

Background: In most countries regular utilization of dental healthcare services by older adults (>= 50 years) is a matter of concern as they seem to use the services less than any other age group. In order to improve the utilisation of dental services in terms of regular dental attendance and regular dental services for older adult patients it would be imperative to look into issues pertaining to lack of utilization of essential dental services by older adults. Therefore this study hopes to look at the factors affecting regular utilization of dental healthcare services among older adults Materials and method: It is a questionnaire based study. The survey was conducted among 100 adults of age group 50 years and above from a private dental hospital from Chennai.The results were obtained and statistically analysed through SPSS software, chi square test was done to check the association and a p value of 0.05 was said to be statistically significant. Results: The main factor affecting the dental service utilisation is dental anxiety, bad perception of dental disease and lack of time. The association between the gender and reason for not utilising the dental service was found to be statistically significant (p=0.006). Conclusion: The study demonstrates low rate of usage of oral health services among the older adults especially those with poor oral health status, economic status, partially edentulous pointing to major inequities to be faced.