Utilization of dental services in the adult Danish population 1975

Lack of information on the dental behavior of adults in Denmark has become a major problem in the national planning of dental services. The purpose of this study was to establish the pattern of utilization of dental services among adult Danes (aged 15 and above). A three-stage cluster sampling design covering the total adult population of Denmark was used to draw a representative sample comprising 1,600 persons. Household interviews by trained interviewers were carried out. Of the adults interviewed, 58% reported yearly dental visits the last 5 years, 32% had not seen a dentist or only when in pain, and 10% went irregularly. Differences according to place of living, age, sex, occupation and school dental care were found. 63% of those who had seen a dentist reported bad teeth or were edentulous with or without dentures. 10% reported fear, 9% had good teeth and 5% reported economic difficulties. The most frequent treatments at the latest dental visit were cleaning and filling for the regular patients and extractions and dentures for the nonregular patients. A multiple classification analysis revealed that the number of teeth was the strongest predictor for dental services, with the following predictors in descending order: age, occupation, place of living, economy, sex and school dental care. These variables could explain 58% of the variation in utilization.