The shape of the socioeconomic–oral health gradient: implications for theoretical explanations

Abstract

The nature of the relationship between social status and oral conditions differed according to the measure used to index social status. Perception of relative social standing followed an approximately straight-line relationship. In contrast, there was a discrete threshold of income below which oral health deteriorated, suggesting that the benefit to oral health of material resources occurs mostly at the lower end of the across the full socioeconomic distribution.