ArticleCommunity dentistry and oral epidemiology2021
Prevalence of and factors associated with unmet dental need among the US adult population in 2016.
Article in Community dentistry and oral epidemiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Separation from the CDC and its consequences for the public health workforce: findings from the CDC WISE Survey.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- Classifying Delayed Dental Care Using Machine Learning: A National Health Interview Survey Analysis.International dental journal · 2026Article
- Older Adults' Access to Pharmacological Treatment, a Human Right to Health: Scoping Review (2020-2025).Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Associations of unmet dental care needs due to cost with incident cardiovascular disease and dementia: a prospective study in the All of Us cohort.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Article
- Effect of Regional Deprivation and Dental Care Resources on the Unmet Dental Care Needs due to Cost of Older Individuals in South Korea.Gerodontology · 2025Article
- Global situation of oral health coverage toward universal health coverage: A scoping review.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Review
- Association between type of health insurance and dental visits among Ecuadorian older population: evidence from a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Use and Costs of Supplemental Benefits in Medicare Advantage, 2017-2021.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Social capital and regional influences: key predictors of unmet dental care needs among older adults in Korea.Epidemiology and health · 2025Article
- Uncovering psychologically mediated pathways to cardiovascular diseases: depressive symptoms as a mediator between childhood maltreatment and single or multiple cardiovascular disease comorbidities.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Variability in the utilization of preventive dental services among the underserved population of Indiana.PloS one · 2025Article
- Employing AI tools to predict features for dental care use in the United States during the global respiratory illness outbreak.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Oral health profiles in the population of older adults in Ecuador: An analysis of latent classes.PloS one · 2025Article
- To appreciate the influence of contributed determinants on dental care utilization in the context of socio-economic inequalities.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- Impact of musculoskeletal disability limitations on the economic unmet dental needs in South Korea.BMC oral health · 2024Article
- Socioeconomic inequality as a predictor of unmet health needs in the older adult population of Serbia.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Article
- Does preventive dental care reduce nonpreventive dental visits and expenditures among Medicaid-enrolled adults?Health services research · 2022Article
- Relationship between Precarious Employment and Unmet Dental Care Needs among Korean Workers: A Longitudinal Panel Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesUnderstanding and addressing contributing factors to unmet dental need is an important public health challenge. This study investigated the prevalence of, and factors associated with, self-reported unmet dental need using a nationally representative sample of US adults.
methodsThis was a cross-sectional study using the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS) from 2016. The weighted prevalence of unmet dental need was estimated among individuals aged 18 years or older. Chi-squared and multivariate logit regression with marginal effects (ie absolute risk differences) were used to measure the association of unmet dental need with respondent characteristics.
resultsThe prevalence of adults reporting unmet dental need was 6% (95% CI: 5.5 to 6.5). Adults with dental insurance were 1.7 percentage points (95% CI: -2.8 to -0.6) less likely to report unmet dental needs than adults without dental insurance. Those with middle income were 2.3 percentage points (95% CI: 1.2 to 3.4), those with low income were 3.3 percentage points (95% CI: 1.7 to 5.0), and those with poor/negative/near-poor income were 4.2 percentage points (95% CI: 2.7 to 5.7) more likely to report an unmet dental need than adults with high income. Both Hispanics (-1.7 percentage points [95% CI: -2.8 to -0.6]) and non-Hispanic Blacks (-1.1 percentage points [95% CI: -2.1 to -0.1]) were less likely to report an unmet dental need than whites. Smoking, education, general health status, chronic disease and marital status were also significantly associated with reporting an unmet dental need.
conclusionsFuture policies should continue to address cost and coverage barriers to adult dental care, as these remain significant barriers to access, particularly for low-income adults. Future research should evaluate the reasons adults report unmet dental need and explore how adults' judgment of dental need compares to providers' clinical judgment. Additionally, research that explores how race and ethnicity affect perceptions of unmet dental need is warranted.
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