Journal article
Preventive Dental Visits Among Older Adults With Mental Health Conditions: A Retrospective Cohort Study From a Dental School Setting
Special care in dentistry, Vol.45(6), e70122
11/2025
DOI: 10.1111/scd.70122
PMCID: PMC12699242
PMID: 41340530
Appears in UI Libraries Support Open Access
Abstract
To assess the frequency of annual preventive dental visits among older adults with self-reported mental health conditions receiving care at a dental school and to identify the variables associated with visit prevalence.
Data were extracted from electronic health records for all individuals aged 65 years or older who self-reported a mental health condition between 2008 and 2024. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the participants were summarized using descriptive statistics, and significant predictors of annual preventive dental visits were identified through a multivariable logistic regression analysis.
A total of 3846 subjects met the inclusion criteria. From this total, 1,853 (48.2%) received preventive dental services and 1,294 (33.6%) had at least one annual preventive dental visit. Within this group, 64.2% were female, the average age was 76.0 ± 9.1 years, 54% were self-paying, 62% resided within 30 miles of the clinic, and 70.9% were treated by pre-doctoral students. Nearly 43% were obese, and they reported taking an average of 7.8 ± 7.2 daily medications. The average number of teeth was 25.0 ± 7.3. Additionally, 83.7% had heart disease, 54.9% experienced xerostomia, and 5.3% reported a history of illicit drug addiction. Approximately 40% used tobacco, 45.7% had diabetes, and 30.7% struggled with alcohol addiction. Each additional year of age was associated with a 4% increase in the odds of attending two or more annual preventive dental visits (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.01-1.08; p = 0.004). Additionally, patients treated by faculty members had significantly higher odds of attending two or more annual preventive dental visits compared to those treated by predoctoral students (OR = 3.77, 95% CI: 2.24-6.36; p < 0.001).
In this sample of older adults with self-reported mental health condition, about one-third had at least one annual preventive dental visit during the observation period. Receiving care from faculty members was significantly associated with increased odds of attending annual preventive dental visits.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Preventive Dental Visits Among Older Adults With Mental Health Conditions: A Retrospective Cohort Study From a Dental School Setting
- Creators
- Katie McAllister - University of IowaFang Qian - University of IowaJodi Tate - University of IowaLeonardo Marchini - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Special care in dentistry, Vol.45(6), e70122
- DOI
- 10.1111/scd.70122
- PMID
- 41340530
- PMCID
- PMC12699242
- NLM abbreviation
- Spec Care Dentist
- ISSN
- 0275-1879
- eISSN
- 1754-4505
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Grant note
- Microsoft
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Mr. Charles McBrearty for his assistance in gathering data from the electronic health records. In developing this manuscript, the authors utilized Microsoft's AI language model, Co-Pilot, to improve the clarity and language of the text. After employing this tool, the authors carefully reviewed and adjusted the content as needed, taking full responsibility for the final version of the article.
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/2025
- Academic Unit
- Preventive and Community Dentistry; Psychiatry; Dental Research
- Record Identifier
- 9985090734902771
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