Dental insurance and use of dental services.

OBJECTIVES This article examines socioeconomic differences in insurance for dental services among Canadians aged 15 or older and factors associated with the use of dental services. DATA SOURCE The data on dental insurance coverage and use of dental services are from the cross-sectional file of Statistics Canada's 1996/97 National Population Health Survey. The sample size of respondents aged 15 or older was 70,884. ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES Logistic regression analysis was used to model variables related to dental insurance coverage and to dental visits in the past year. A weighted bootstrap resampling procedure was used to derive variance estimates. MAIN RESULTS In 1996/97, 53% of the population aged 15 or older reported having dental insurance, and 59% said they had visited a dentist in the past year. But even when they had insurance, individuals with low incomes and low educational attainment had much lower odds of visiting a dentist than those with higher incomes and more education.