Socioeconomic and healthcare factors associated with edentulism in Brazil
tooth loss; oral health; dental health services.
Edentulism (total or partial) causes great harm to the individual and may have a negative impact on quality of life. Despite the advances obtained through the National Oral Health Policy, Brazil is still marked by the large amount of tooth loss. The aim of the present study was to analyze the socioeconomic and health care factors associated with edentulism in Brazil. Cross-sectional study, using data from the 2019 National Health Survey (PNS) of individuals aged 15 years and over, totaling 90,846 individuals. Binomial descriptive and multivariate analysis was performed considering the requirements of complex samples., assuming a significance of 5% and a CI of 95%. A higher prevalence of edentulism was observed in older people, with lower income, female, uneducated, living in the interior, who had last visited the dentist more than three years ago and who had registered with Primary Care in Health. Edentulism in Brazil is related to worse socioeconomic conditions and difficulty in accessing dental treatment, which indicates the need to strengthen its national oral health policy.