Associations of Medical Visits with Dentist Visits: A Register-Linkage Study of a Working-Age Population in Finland

Abstract

Studies have usually addressed the utilization of either medical or dental services, and less is known about how medical and dentist visits are associated. As oral health is linked to systemic health, knowledge on care coordination between dental and medical services is important to gain understanding of the overall functioning of health care. Register data on 25–64-year-old residents of the city of Oulu, Finland, were used for the years 2017–2018 (N = 91,060). Logit models were estimated to analyze the probability of dentist visits, according to the number of medical visits in total and by three separate health care sectors. The majority, 61%, had visited both a medical professional and a dentist. All sectors combined, as few as one to two visits increased the odds of dentist visits (OR: 1.43, CI: 1.33, 1.53). When separated by medical professionals’ health care sectors, for one to two visits, the strongest association was found with public (OR: 1.17, CI: 1.12, 1.22) and private sector (OR: 1.35, CI: 1.30, 1.41). For occupational health service visits, the odds increased only after six or more visits. The results support the idea of integrated medical and dental care. However, the result may also arise from individual health behavior where health-conscious persons seek both medical and dental care independently.