Association between unmet needs for dental treatment and the DMFT index among Korean adults

Abstract

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Objectives: Unmet needs for dental treatment are one of the potential contributing factors to poor oral health because oral health problems worsen if left untreated. This study aimed to demonstrate the prevalence of and the causes for unmet dental needs, and to evaluate the association between unmet needs for dental treatment and oral health status. Methods: Data on 3,883 subjects aged ≥18 years from the Korean National Oral Health Survey 2006 were analyzed. Information regarding unmet needs for dental treatment was obtained using standardized questionnaires. Eight trained dentists examined decayed, missing, or filled teeth (DMFT). Multiple regression models were built to assess the association between unmet needs for dental treatment and the DMFT scores. Results: The prevalence of perceived unmet needs for dental treatment was 34.7% among the adult Korean population. Economic constraints were the main cause (38.6%) for unmet dental needs. The average DMFT scores were higher in the subjects with unmet needs for dental treatment than in those without. In individuals with unmet needs for dental treatment within the past 1 year, the number of decayed teeth after adjusting for confounders was likely to be greater by 0.58 and that of missing teeth by 0.27 compared to that in their counterparts with no unmet dental needs in the past 1 year. Conclusions: Perceived unmet needs for dental treatment were significantly associated with poor oral health status among the adult Korean population. Further studies are needed to clarify the direct and indirect effects of unmet needs for dental treatment on an individual's oral health status by investigating critical variables of the causal pathways among perceived dental needs, dental care utilization, and oral health status.

Analysis of the Effects of Unmet Dental Care on Dental Treatment Needs: Based on the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2019)

“…It was reported that the Missing Index was significantly higher, and the subjective oral health status was also negative when dental examinations were not performed periodically [13,14].…”

Associations between Dental Checkups and Unmet Dental Care Needs: An Examination of Cross-Sectional Data from the Seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016–2018)

“…Many studies have been conducted on the causes of unmet dental care needs among Koreans: sociodemographic characteristics [ 18 ], factors related to dental pain [ 14 ], insecurity in the employment market [ 19 , 20 ], the Decayed, Missing, and Filled Teeth (DMFT) index [ 21 ], and geographic accessibility [ 17 ]. In general, economic burden was found to be the most frequent cause of unmet dental care needs [ 16 , 22 ].…”