Use of Dental Services by Older Adults at a Havana Doctor’s Office
Keywords:
older adult; dental care; health services for the elderly; use of health servicesAbstract
Introduction: The demand for services among older adults is lower than the real needs. The causes of this low utilization could be related to insufficient knowledge about oral health or the acceptance of edentulism as something due to age, or others.
Objective: To characterize the use of dental services by the older adult population at Family Physician's Office No. 21 of the University Polyclinic Heroes del Moncada, in Havana.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2025 with 116 older adults of Doctor’s Office #21. Observation and semi-structured interview were used as empirical methods. Sociodemographic variables and service utilization were analyzed. Data were processed at absolute and relative frequencies.
Results: 55.1% were women and 53.4% were between 60 and 74 years old. 38.7% attended the services only in the presence of pain, i.e. in the emergency room. The older adults who reported not attending the consultation because they had no discomfort predominated (56.8%).
Conclusions: The use of dental services was characterized by irregular attendance, mainly motivated by emergencies derived from pain. The main cause was the perception that, in the absence of discomfort, there is no need to attend the services.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Mohamed Azís Pérez-Caldevilla, Alina Roche-Martínez, Sofía de los Ángeles Piñera-Crehuet, Ana Beatriz Pérez-García, Roberto Sergio Granado-Abreu, Lauren de la Caridad Donate-Menéndez
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