Characteristics of dental attendance among Lithuanian middle-aged university employees

Žana Sakalauskienė, Vita Mačiulskienė, Miira M. Vehkalahti¹, Ričardas Kubilius, Heikki Murtomaa¹

Department of Dental and Oral Pathology, Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania, ¹Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, Finland

Key words: dentist’s recall; habitual dental attendance; most recent dental visit; preventive check-up; self-reported number of teeth lost.

Summary. Objective. This study aimed to evaluate and describe the dental attendance patterns and to characterize the factors that encourage preventive dental visits among 35- to 44-year-old university employees in Lithuania.

Material and methods. A questionnaire survey was conducted anonymously among the 35- to 44-year-old employees (n=862) of four universities in Lithuania in 2005. The response rate was 64% (n=553). Data on their most recent dental visit, habitual dental attendance, and self-reported dental health were collected. Gender, marital status, education, and income levels served as background factors. Of the respondents, 79% were women, and 82% held a university degree.

Results. Of all the respondents, 75% reported having their most recent dental visit within the previous 12 months; 19% indicated a preventive check-up as the reason for it (15% – self-decided visit and 4% – dentist’s recall). The most common treatments received were fillings (75%), scaling and cleaning (28%), and endodontic treatment (22%). Analysis of the data about habitual dental attendance showed that preventive check-up as the main reason for attendance was more commonly reported by women (OR=1.7), among those who indicated having lost fewer teeth (OR=1.5), reported higher incomes (OR=1.4), and who indicated a shorter time interval since their most recent dental visit (OR=1.3).

Conclusion. Dental problem seems to be a dominant reason for dental attendance in Lithuania where both dentists’ and patients’ behavior weakly reflects preventive orientation.

Correspondence to Ž. Sakalauskienė, Department of Dental and Oral Pathology, Kaunas University of Medicine, Eivenių 2, 50009 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: zana.sakalauskiene@med.kmu.lt

Received 11 September 2008, accepted 3 April 2009