Recency of immigration and utilization of dental care services in Canada

To investigate the association between recency of immigration to Canada and the utilization of dental health services.

The cross-sectional study sample (n = 2137) was drawn from the 2015-2016 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). It consisted of Canadian residents aged 12 years and older who resided in the two provinces and one territory who opted into the optional dental module and gave valid responses to the questions 'How often do you usually see a dental professional, such as a dentist, a dental hygienist or a denturologist?' and 'Length of time since immigration to Canada?' for the outcome and independent variable, respectively. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyse the data, and all statistics were weighted using sampling weights provided by Statistics Canada.

The adjusted odds ratios were lower for recent immigrants than for established immigrants and for visits more than once per year (OR = 0.35; 95% CI 0.14, 0.92), about once per year (OR = 0.34; 95% CI 0.13, 0.90) and for less than once per year (OR = 0.22; 95% CI 0.07, 0.64) than for those who never visited a dental professional. Recent immigrants, males, individuals aged 70 years or more and those with a low household income were less likely to visit a dental professional than established immigrants, females, younger age groups or those with higher incomes.

Better policies are needed to address the dental health concerns of recent immigrants who may suffer from poorer dental health, to ensure that they receive the care they require.