Association between subjective oral health and regularity of service use

Kaprio H, Suominen AL, Lahti S. Association between subjective oral health and regularity of service use. ? Eur J Oral Sci 2012; 120: 212217. (C) 2012 Eur J Oral Sci The aim was to evaluate the predictive power of two different measures of subjective oral health in relation to regularity of use of oral health-care services. The nationally representative data were collected as part of the Health 2000 Survey on Finnish adults, 30+ yr of age (n = 4926). Subjective oral health and regularity of using of oral health-care services were measured using single questions and oral health-related quality of life was measured using the 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) questionnaire. Those reporting poor oral health or higher impacts in the OHIP-14 were more likely to be irregular users of oral health-care services. Further research is needed to investigate more precisely the applicability of these measures in different settings of oral health-care provision.