Examining Association of Receipt of Dental Care With Late-Stage Head and Neck Cancer

Head and neck cancer (HNC) is associated with poor health outcomes. The receipt of regular dental care may increase the likelihood of diagnosing HNC earlier but has not been studied extensively. The authors' objective was to examine the association of receipt of dental care with late-stage HNC, adjusting for key covariate measures.

This was a retrospective study of 468 Kaiser Permanente Northwest patients with HNC diagnosed between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2023. All data elements needed for the analysis were constructed from Kaiser Permanente Northwest's electronic health record. The main outcome measure was incident late-stage HNC, defined as American Joint Committee on Cancer stage 3-4 (vs stage 0-2). The independent variable was receipt of dental care (yes, no) in the 12 months prior to cancer diagnosis. Multivariable logistic regression assessed the association between receipt of dental care and late-stage HNC diagnosis, adjusted for key covariate measures.

Those who had any dental visits in the year before diagnosis (odds ratio, 0.64; 95% confidence interval, 0.43-0.95) had lower odds of being diagnosed with late-stage HNC compared to those with no dental visits, after adjusting for study covariates.

Future research should determine whether providing ongoing dental care for populations at risk of developing HNC lowers the incidence of late-stage cancer diagnosis.

Patients who had any dental visits in the year prior to cancer diagnosis had lower odds of being diagnosed with late-stage HNC.