Sociodemographic, Financial and Mental Health Predictors of Frequency of Dental Visits in Middle-Aged and Young Adults in the United States: Findings from the NHIS 2023.

<h2>ABSTRACT</h2><h3>Importance</h3> Poor dental health is linked to poor physical and mental health. <h3>Objective</h3> To examine the characteristics of US adults that are associated with having seen a dentist in the past year. <h3>Design and Data source</h3> A cross-section of adults aged 18 to 64 years (n =19,975) from the 2023 National Health Interview Survey was examined. Bivariate analyses examined the associations of sociodemographic and financial variables with recent dental visits in the last 12 months. Multinomial modeling was used to assess these variables to predict three outcomes of time since the last dental visit: in the last 12 months, over a year but less than 10 years, and over 10 years or never, which was the reference category. <h3>Results</h3> In young and middle-aged adults, 4.8% of Americans representing over 9 million people had either never seen a dentist or not seen a dentist in 10 years or more. The likelihood of a dental visit in the last 12 months increased with education level (no high school degree vs. graduate or professional degree, AOR = 0.21 (CI = 0.09,0.50)) and income (income below the federal poverty line vs. income in the highest quartile: AOR = 0.20 (CI = 0.11,0.35)). Having dental coverage in a private plan or Medicaid compared to no coverage predicted having a dental visit within the last 12 months in both multinomial and bivariate analyses. <h3>Findings</h3> Access to dental care in young and middle-aged adults is determined by financial ability. Increasing access to dental care could happen once the financial barriers to dental care are reduced, including increasing the age a young adult can be covered by a parent's plan, and making dental coverage comparable to physical health coverage. Given the current data about the links between dental, mental and physical health, parity for all care is warranted.