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Purpose: To examine the association between educational level and the presence of periodontal disease in adults ages ≥ 50 years in Mexico., Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 2098 Mexican adults, using data from the annual reports of the Epidemiological Monitoring System for Oral Pathologies from 2019-2022. Data were collected on sociodemographic characteristics such as gender, age, educational level, oral hygiene, and diabetes. Periodontal status was evaluated using the Community Periodontal Index (CPI) and was classified into: CPI = 0 (healthy); CPI = 1 (bleeding on probing); CPI = 2 (calculus); and CPI = 3 or 4 (pocket depth ≥ 4 mm). A multinomial regression model was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and the 95% confidence intervals (CI), using periodontal status as the result., Results: 39.9% of subjects presented periodontal pockets of ≥ 4 mm, 20.8% presented calculus, and 12.8% presented bleeding, while only 26.4% were classified as healthy. A low level of education (≤ 9 years) (OR = 4.84; p 0.001), age ≥ 65 years (OR = 1.33; p = 0.025), poor oral hygiene (OR = 6.86; p 0.001), smoking (OR = 1.51; p = 0.025), and diabetes (OR = 1.73; p 0.001) were statistically significantly associated with the presence of periodontal pockets ≥ 4 mm., Conclusions: A low level of education is associated with worse periodontal status in adults aged 50 years or more. These findings reiterate the importance of implementing effective strategies and the incorporation of interventions for improving the access to and quality of services targeted at aging communities.

Purpose: To explore the relationship between of self-reported health (SRH) and educational attainment with pastyear dental visits in older adults in México., Materials and Methods: For this cross-sectional study, data were derived from the Mexican Health and Aging Study 2018 (MHAS-2018), which used a nationally-representative sample of older adults (50 years or older) in Mexico (n = 14,085). Variables taken from the MHAS questionnaire included residence (rural/urban), years of education, SRH, multimorbidity, pain severity, and past-year dental visits. A logistic regression model was used to identify the association between the variables and past-year dental visits., Results: While the percentage of past-year dental visits reported was 39.8%, this number declined with age [OR=0.76, p < 0.001], with older adults living in rural areas 34% less likely to report past-year dental visits than older adults living in urban areas. Older adults with no formal education were 73% less likely (OR=0.27; p < 0.001) to report past-year dental visits than older adults ≥10 years education. Older adults with poor SRH were 32% less likely (OR=0.68; p < 0.001) to report past-year dental visits than older adults with good/very good/excellent SRH. Sex, degree of multimorbidity, and pain level ([OR=1.37; p < 0.001] [OR=1.37; p < 0.001] and [OR=1.17; p < 0.001]) were all found to be positively associated with past-year dental visits in the study population., Conclusion: The present study highlights the association between poor SRH, a low level of educational attainment, and less frequent past-year dental visits, as well as the finding that past-year dental visits declined with age in the older adults sampled.