Differences in willingness to pay for an extraction, a filling, and cleaning teeth at various levels of oral health-related quality of life, as measured by oral impacts on daily performance, among older adults in Singapore.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the differences in Willingness to pay (WTP) for an extraction, a filling, and cleaning of teeth among older adults with varying levels of Oral Health-related Quality of Life (OHQoL).

BACKGROUND: OHQoL has been used extensively to measure utilities as reported by individuals of interest. Currently there are no reports that examine the WTP of individuals at various levels of OHQoL.

METHODS: A convenience sample of adults 60 years or older were recruited. Besides other domains, questionnaires were used to assess WTP (extraction, filling, and cleaning of teeth), OHQoL (using Oral Impacts on Daily Performance-OIDP), McArthur scale, and access to care.

RESULTS: Tamil ethnicity was related to higher WTP for an extraction (mean ratio, 1.63-3.98; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]), increase of age in years was related to lower WTP for extraction (mean ratio, 0.96-1.00 [95%CI]) and increasing OIDP score was related to lower WTP for extractions (mean ratio, 0.80-0.99 [95%CI]). Tamil ethnicity was associated with higher WTP for fillings (mean ratio, 2.69-6.44 [95%CI]); higher age in years was associated with lower WTP for fillings (mean ratio, 0.94-0.99 [95%CI]), and higher OIDP scores was trending to be associated to lower WTP for filling (mean ratio, 0.80-1.00 [95%CI]). Tamil Ethnicity was also associated with higher WTP for cleaning (mean ratio, 2.14-7.19 [95%CI]), higher age in years was also associated with cleaning (mean ratio, 0.94-0.99 [95%CI]).

CONCLUSION: Individuals with higher OIDP scores tended to have lower WTP for extraction, filling and cleaning; with significant differences reported for extraction.