# Determinants of the number of dental visits in the general adult population in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic

## TL;DR

This study explores what influenced how often adults in Germany visited the dentist during the pandemic, finding that personality and loneliness played key roles.

## Contribution

The study highlights the previously overlooked impact of personality traits and loneliness on dental visit frequency during the pandemic.

## Key findings

- Higher conscientiousness and neuroticism were linked to more dental visits.
- Loneliness was significantly associated with increased dental visits.
- Predisposing, enabling, and need factors had little to no impact on dental visit frequency.

## Abstract

Oral health is essential to general health and well-being. The utilization of oral health care services represents an important factor in reducing oral health morbidities. In order to understand the disparities in the frequency of dental visits, it is necessary to identify determinants that influence the use of those services. The aim of the current study was to investigate the determinants of the number of dental visits in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We used data from the general adult population in Germany with n = 2,807 individuals in the analytical sample. Average age was 46.5 years (SD: 15.2 years, range 18 to 74 years) and 48.2% of the individuals were female. The number of dental visits in the preceding 12 months served as outcome measure. Grounded on the extended Andersen model, various determinants were included in regression analysis. Multiple negative binomial regressions were used.

Negative binomial regressions showed that a higher number of dental visits was significantly associated with personality-related (higher conscientiousness, IRR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.03–1.15; higher neuroticism, IRR: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.00-1.12) and psychosocial factors (higher loneliness, IRR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.02–1.22). In contrast, only very few predisposing characteristics, and none of the enabling resources and need factors were significantly associated with the outcome measure.

This study particularly emphasized the importance of personality-related factors and psychosocial factors (in terms of loneliness) for the number of dental visits during the pandemic. These factors, often overlooked in prior research, deserve further attention in upcoming studies dealing with the number of dental visits.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-025-12577-0.