Dental Expenditures and Source of Payment by Race/Ethnicity and Other Sociodemographic Characteristics

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Abstract
Objective: This study presents race/ethnic‐specific distributions of dental expenditures and their sources of payment by socioeconomic characteristics among US working‐age adults. Methods: Data for persons aged 19–64 years from the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey (NMES) (n=18,696) were used to calculate mean dental expenditures and their 95 percent confidence intervals. Results: Dental expenditures were reported by 44.5 percent of participants. Non‐Hispanic whites and persons with higher income were more likely to report dental expenditures than their counterparts. Among persons reporting expenditures, those with lower income had lower expenditures than higher‐income persons. No differences in the amount of expenditures by race/ethnicity, sex, or employment status were observed. In all race/ethnic groups almost half the expenditures were paid out‐of‐pocket and one‐third by dental insurance. Conclusion: While sociodemographic characteristics determined who had dental expenditures, they did not determine the amount or source of those expenditures.