Exploring Associations Between Loneliness, Dental Trust, and Oral Health Impact.

Objectives: Loneliness has been identified as a possible risk factor for poorer oral health. Based on prior work, including a systematic review, additional work is needed to bolster this area, particularly in understanding potential mechanisms that help explicate such an association. The aim of this pilot study was to explore dental trust as one such potential mediator between loneliness and oral health impact.
Methods: Adult visitors of the Marquette University School of Dentistry were recruited and administered a survey via Qualtrics. Data collected included demographics, health history, the UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Dental Trust Scale, and the Oral Health Impact Profile-5 (n = 88). Data were then analyzed using correlation and multiple linear regression, including path analyses via the PROCESS add-on for SPSS.
Results: Consistent with prior studies, loneliness was associated with greater negative impact on oral health (r = 0.46, p < 0.001) and greater mistrust of the dental profession (r = -0.60, p < 0.001). Greater mistrust also was associated with more negative oral health impact (r = -0.37, p =0.002). Results of a mediation regression model indicated increase loneliness was associated with greater negative oral health impact (β = 0.34, p = 0.021). Loneliness also was associated with greater mistrust (β = -0.59, p < 0.001), though dental trust was not significantly associated with oral health impact. The overall direct effect of loneliness on oral health impact was significant (β = 0.45, p < 0.001) and the indirect effect was not.
Conclusions: This pilot study confirmed prior data suggesting an association between loneliness and oral health and suggested dental trust as one potential mechanism to explain such a relation. Additional data is needed to more thoroughly examine this and other explanations to better understand the impact of loneliness and social isolation on oral health impact.