Cost, lack of insurance keeping Canadians from seeing the dentist: StatCan

More than one-third of Canadians reported not having any dental insurance effectively making it difficult for them to get the care they need.

With the federal government’s early steps for a dental care plan expected to be announced before the end of the year, new data from Statistics Canada suggests more than one in three Canadians had not visited a dentist over the span of 12 months between 2021 and 2022 — and almost one-quarter say this was due to cost.

The data is based off the Canadian Community Health Survey, released Monday, which collected data from Canadians 12 and older living in the provinces between Feb. 9 to Dec. 31, 2022.

In an interview, Statistics Canada dissemination manager for the CCHS Shawn Brule said about 60,000 Canadians were asked and that the 12-month period in which they avoided the dentist could have been between February 2021 and 2022, or as late as between December 2021 and 2022.

In fact, more than one-third of Canadians reported not having any dental insurance, making it difficult for them to get the care they need.

Canadian Dental Association President Dr. Heather Carr says the numbers are concerning in part due to oral care being linked to a person’s overall health.

“The best way to prevent dental disease and pain is early detection so you can get in while it’s easy to fix,” she said. “So if you’re not able to go, that can lead to some pretty serious consequences.”

Brule said that the data released in the survey may be able to set the stage for the national dental care plan.

“This data is a good snapshot at a point in time before that program (the Canadian Dental Care Plan) has rolled out so that we can look at who’s going by different characteristics, who’s not going and who’s reporting not going because of cost,” Brule said.