Impact of regional dental service availability on preventive dental utilization

Yae-Hoon Kim; Gyu-Bin Kim; Seung-Yeon Wi; Khadija-Ashraf; Kang-Jae Lee; DongLiu; Yun-Sook Jung

doi:10.13065/jksdh.2025.25.6.8

Impact of regional dental service availability on preventive dental utilization

Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
Abbr : J Korean Soc Dent Hyg
2025, 25(6), pp.545~553
DOI : 10.13065/jksdh.2025.25.6.8
Publisher : Korean Society of Dental Hygiene
Research Area : Medicine and Pharmacy > Dentistry
Received : November 14, 2025
Accepted : December 5, 2025
Published : December 30, 2025

Yae-Hoon Kim ¹, Gyu-Bin Kim ¹, Seung-Yeon Wi ¹, Khadija-Ashraf ², Kang-Jae Lee ², DongLiu ³, Yun-Sook Jung ¹

¹Department of Dental Hygiene, Graduate School of Kyungpook National University
²Department of Convergence and Fusion System Engineering, Kyungpook National University
³School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the association between regional accessibility to dental services and the utilization of preventive dental care in Korea. Methods: We combined data from the 2024 Korean Community Health Survey with data from public databases, including KOSTAT and Health Insurance and Review Assessment(HIRA). The final analysis included 231,554 participants. Preventive dental-care utilization was defined as having undergone dental scaling within the previous year. Access to dental services was calculated as the number of dental-care personnel per 10,000 people in the 252 administrative districts. After adjusting for age and education level, we performed a composite sample logistic regression analysis using SAS 9.4. The spatial distribution was visualized using QGIS 3.40.11. Results: Among participants, 50.6% reported having undergone dental scaling in the past year. In the adjusted model, individuals residing in areas with high accessibility to dental services had significantly higher odds of receiving annual scaling (odds ratio = 1.310; confidence interval: 1.27–1.35) compared with those residing in areas with low accessibility(p<0.001). Conclusions: Greater access to dental services was associated with a higher likelihood of utilizing preventive dental care. Strengthening local dental infrastructure is essential for reducing the regional oral health gap.

KEYWORDS

Community health services, Dental clinics, Dental scaling, Oral health, Public health infrastructure

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* References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.

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