OBJECTIVE: To examine dental visits among smoking and nonsmoking adults in a nationally representative sample. METHODS: Logistic regression analysis was performed, using a sample of 15,250 US adults from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component 2000. RESULTS: Current smokers were less likely to report dental visits (32.9%) than were nonsmokers (45.0%) during 2000. Differences were statistically significant even after accounting for other predictors of dental care use. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to optimize the oral health of smokers and reduce serious oral diseases may benefit from addressing this lower use of dental services among smokers.
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Drilea et al. (2005) studied this question.