A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in order to explore access to
dental care, determine factors related to utilization of dental services and to compare past
deciduous dental caries expererience between utilization and non-utilization groups of the
1st grade students in 9 primary schools under the development of primary school students
referral system for prevention and dental treatment project, Nonthaburi municipality, in 2013
academic year as in a responsibility of Pranangklao hospital. Secondary data of dental caries
experience (dmft) was drawn from database of 2013 school oral health survey. Questionnaires
were passed to student guardians. Six hundred and seventy five questionnaires were returned
and completed (80.5 %). The results showed that 74.8 % students utilized dental services
in the previous year.The utilization of dental services of the students, ranking from the
most important factor, was significantly associated with student s having toothache,
guardian’s educational level, perception of free dental service project at Pranangklao
Hospital, receiving report of oral examination, utilization of dental services of guardian
and motivation for utilization by teacher (OR = 2.45, 2.36, 2.26, 1.90, 1.66 and 1.65). Children
of private schools and having higher family income and higher guardian’s educational level
had lower dmft (p < 0.01). However, dmft was not associated with dental service utilization.

On the other hand, the prevalence of deciduous dental caries between utilization and nonutilization

children was not differences. Dental referral services project should be continued
and improved for equity in dental care utilization, especially for students with low educational
level guardians and lots of caries problems but access to few dental care utilizion in order to
gain access to dental care.