Dental service utilization by independently dwelling older adults in Manitoba, Canada.

Abstract

Despite some common predisposing factors, the variables influencing dental utilization were different for dentate and edentulous participants, with enabling factors playing a bigger role for the dentate and need factors of greater importance for the edentulous. These findings seem to indicate that older dentate adults who visit the dentist do so because they can, while older edentulous adults who visit the dentist do so because they must.