Inequalities in access to NHS primary care dental services in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction This study aimed to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access and inequalities in primary care dental services among children and adults in Scotland.Methods Access was measured as any NHS Scotland primary care dental contacts derived from administrative data from January 2019 to May 2022, linked to the area-based Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation for children and adults, and related to population denominator estimates from National Record Scotland. Inequalities for pre-pandemic (January 2019-January 2020) and recent (December 2021-February 2022, and March 2022-May 2022) periods for both children and adults were calculated and compared using the slope index of inequality and relative index of inequality.Results Following the first lockdown (March 2020) there was a dramatic fall to near zero dental contacts, followed by a slow recovery to 64.8% of pre-pandemic levels by May 2022. There was initial widening of relative inequalities in dental contacts in early 2022, which, more recently, had begun to return to pre-pandemic levels.Conclusion COVID-19 had a major impact on access to NHS primary dental care, and while inequalities in access are apparent as services recover from lockdown, these inequalities are not a new phenomenon.

Adult Dental Health Survey 2009: association between oral health outcomes and living arrangements of older adults in the UK.

Introduction Considering the growing ageing populations and the impact of oral health in the wellbeing of older adults, there is a need for understanding dental care utilisation among this group. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between living arrangements, oral health status and dental care utilisation of older adults in the UK.Design In this study, complete case analyses were carried out for the Adult Dental Health Survey (ADHS) 2009 wave including 1,251 older adults aged 75 years and over. Logistic regression analyses were carried out to explore the relationship between living arrangements and oral health outcomes of older adults.Results Findings from this study show that almost half (45.2%) of the study population were living alone at the time the ADHS 2009 data were collected. At P <0.05, older adults living alone were more likely to have a denture (OR = 1.40, 95% CI 1.09, 1.79), poor self-rated oral health status (OR = 1.28, 95% CI 1.00, 1.64) and poor dental care attendance (OR = 1.60-95% CI 1.35, 2.15) compared to those that lived with someone.Conclusions Living arrangements as a form of social support seems to play a role in understanding the accessibility of dental care for older adults.