Utilization of dental service and associated factors for urban Chinese

Objectives: the purpose of the study is to provide information on utilization of deferent levels of oral health service and associated factors amongst adult dwellers living in a community in Xicheng District, Beijing, so that the re-oriented community oral health service could be set up accordingly. Methods: Subjects were recruited by a multistage stratified sampling procedure from 13 neighbors' areas within the community. In total, 1188 subjects aged 35-74 years old completed a highly structured questionnaire by personal interviews. Results: Toothache, gum bleeding, tooth became loosen, difficulty in chewing and halitosis were mainly self-perceived dental symptoms by the participants. More than 80% of the respondents suffered from dental problems, only 33.05% of them had gone to see a dentist during the past 12 months More residents went to hospital based dental clinic(26.19%) rather than to community based clinic(10.42%), p=0.0000. Logistic regression indicate that the presence of dental pain, income, age group, self-perceived dental status and oral health attitudes were significant predictors of dental utilization. Conclusion: Utilization of community based oral health service is less than hospital base service in adults of Chinese community in urban. Low and symptomatic-oriented dental attendance are still the main character of the utilization of dental services among the studied population. The development of preventive-oriented oral health service among community health care centers is urgen.