Influence of Early and Regular Dental Visits on Dental Health Care Costs of Primary School Children in Amsterdam

OBJECTIVES: To explore whether dental visits before the age of 4 years and regular dental visits were associated with incurring dental costs at age 9 (proxy for a dental visit), and if so, what were the dental costs for primary school children in Amsterdam associated with those visits.

METHODS: In this retrospective, longitudinal study, sociodemographic characteristics and dental costs between 2009 and 2017 were obtained from primary school children living in Amsterdam via Statistics Netherlands. Explanatory variables were whether children visited a dentist <4 years of age between 2009 and 2011 (yes/no) and whether children regularly visited a dentist between 2012 and 2016 (yes/no). The outcome was dental costs at age 9 in 2017 (yes/no and the amount).

RESULTS: The study population consisted of 9,519 children. Dental costs <4 years of age and consecutive dental costs were associated with incurring dental costs at age 9 (aOR 2.12 [1.83-2.45]; aOR 6.48 [5.56-7.54], respectively). For those with dental costs at age 9, dental costs <4 years of age were not associated with the amount of dental costs (mean difference [MD] 5.16 [-2.69-13.00]). For children incurring consecutive dental costs, dental costs at age 9 were higher than for those without (MD 17.52 [7.35-27.69]).

CONCLUSIONS: Early and regular dental visits were associated with increased odds of visiting a dentist at age 9 years. For children who visited a dentist at age 9 years, those with early and regular dental visits incurred slightly higher dental costs 5 years later, but mean differences were small and only the latter was significant. Therefore, early or regular dental visits do not lead to lower dental costs in the future.