Comparing dental utilization of United States of America military recruits with their employed civilian cohorts

This study compares the dental utilization of United States of America (USA) military recruits with that of their employed civilian cohorts. Military data were collected between February and June 1994 at one recruit in-processing site per service, using self-administered questionnaires on a prestratified, systematic, random sample of 2369 Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine recruits. Women and blacks were oversampled. Civilian data come from the most recent oral health survey of working adults in the USA. Results show that annual dental utilization rates of military recruits equal or are less than those of their employed civilian cohorts. Overall, 38% of recruits have seen a dentist in the past year, while 30% have not seen a dentist in 3 or more years. Such low consumption of dental care suggests that dental utilization habits prior to service entry do not contribute appreciably to the high dental utilization rates seen among active duty US military personnel.