GERODONTOLOGY
1970s and dentate status but no association was
evidenced in this study.
Many patients reported difficulty remembering
their income at that time, which diminished the
response rate.
There was a strong negative correlation
between patients who are currently employed
full time and the behavior of only seeking dental
care when absolutely necessary.
Of those patients who are full time employees
(n=24) 15 see a dentist once or twice a year, and
9 see a dentist only when there is a problem like
pain. These data have implications for patients
who may have dental benefits and/ or access to
care but do not use dental services.
In exploring the patients’ beliefs regarding
the reasons that “most people lose their teeth”,
both groups were likely to cite “soft teeth,”
“no dentist available,” “not important to some
people,” “poor brushing” and “lack of money.”
There were no statistically significant differences
between groups in this regard.
Those individuals defining their teeth as
“essential” evidenced positive associations with
twice yearly dental visits, and also with once yearly
dental visits. There was a negative correlation
found between these patients and only seeing
a dentist when there is a problem, and with only
seeing a dentist when absolutely necessary.
This study did not query patients regarding
their gender, education, ethnicity or current
income. It was done as a pilot project to
determine feasibility for future research. This
area of dental research holds promise: recently
an exploration of oral health d