Objective: To determine whether long-term routine dental visiting through adolescence and into adulthood is associated with lower unmet treatment needs and costs by age 26 in a system where entitlement to State-funded dental care ceases at age 18.
Methods: Participants in the Dunedin study have been regularly assessed from birth, and dentally examined at a number of ages. At each of ages 15, 18 and 26, an estimate of basic dental treatment needs was obtained. These were converted into treatment costings in $NZ. Long-term regular users of dentistry (LTRUs) were identified as those whose last dental visit was routine rather than symptomatic, and for whom the time since the last dental visit was < 13 months (at each of ages 15, 18 and 26).
Results: Of the 691 Study members examined at all 3 ages and still resident in NZ by age 26, 136 (19.7%) were identified as LTRUs. Differences in the 2 groups' restorative treatment needs diverged over time: at age 15, the mean number of fillings needed among LTRUs and the 555 non-LTRUs were 0.20 and 0.29 respectively (P=0.23); at age 18, it was 0.21 and 0.48 (P=0.004); and it was 0.90 and 2.24 (P<0.001) by age 26. The estimated costs of the 2 groups' total treatment needs similarly diverged, being $105 and $112 respectively (P=0.32); at age 18, it was $115 and $139 (P=0.003); and it was $172 and $298 (P<0.001) by age 26.
Conclusions: Long-term regular use of dentistry is associated with lower accumulated treatment needs and costs by age 26.
Funded by the NZ Dental Research Foundation and the Health Research Council of NZ.