# Medication Purchases Are Associated With the Number of Dental Treatments

## TL;DR

This study found that people who buy more medications tend to have more dental appointments, suggesting a link between general health and dental care needs.

## Contribution

The study is the first to show a significant association between medication purchases and dental treatment frequency in a Swedish population.

## Key findings

- Purchasing more medications was significantly linked to more dental appointments.
- Most drug categories were associated with increased dental visits, even after adjusting for covariates.
- 32 ATC subgroups showed a significant association with dental appointments.

## Abstract

Little is known whether the number of systemic medications, indicating worsened general health, affects the number of dental appointments needed. The hypothesis is that patients purchasing more systemic medications would have an increased number of dental appointments and respective need for treatments than patients who do not purchase as many medications.

Our cohort consists of 1495 participants from the Stockholm area, Sweden, initially examined in 1985. Using national population and patient registers (2005–2017), the association between the number of medication purchases and dental appointments was analyzed. The Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System for Medicines (ATC) was used. Descriptive statistics, chi‐square tests, and logistic regressions were used with several covariates like gender and socioeconomic status.

Purchases above the median of all medications showed a statistically significant association with more dental appointments and respective treatments. Most of the ATC system's main drug categories were significantly associated with more dental appointments, even when adjusting for covariates. Purchases of medications from 32 different ATC subgroups were significantly associated with the number of dental appointments above the median.

In the group of adult Swedes who were studied, it was found that increased purchasing of nearly all types of drugs was associated with an increased number of dental appointments between the study years 2005–2017.