Skip to main content

Gun Violence Leads To Skipped Dental Visits, Lost Teeth

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on April 15, 2025.

via HealthDay

TUESDAY, April 15, 2025 -- Gun violence is bad for dental health, a new study says.

More specifically, people are less likely to go to the dentist in neighborhoods with higher levels of firearm violence, researchers report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

These neighborhoods subsequently experience higher rates of tooth loss.

And these effects increase: For every additional shooting, fewer people see a dentist and more eventually lose teeth, researchers discovered.

“Firearm violence doesn’t just shape public safety, it shapes health behaviors, including whether people feel safe enough to seek care,” Daniel Semenza, director of research at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University, said in a news release.

“This research underscores the importance of addressing violence as a public health crisis,” Semenza added.

For the new study, researchers examined 20,332 census tracts within the 100 largest cities in the U.S. between 2014 and 2022, using information from two major federal databases.

On average, 60% of people said they’d received dental care in the past year, but the figure ranged from 18% to 89% depending on the neighborhood, researchers reported.

Among seniors 65 and older, about 15% reported losing at least one tooth each year.

But people were increasingly less likely to go to the dentist — and more likely to lose a tooth — for each additional incident of gun violence in their neighborhood, researchers found.

Each shooting led to a 0.01% reduction in people going to the dentist, and a 0.06% increase in losing a tooth, results show.

Beyond skipping dental care, people exposed to gun violence are more likely to pick up habits that are bad for their teeth, researchers said. Stressed folks are more likely to eat unhealthy, smoke, get less sleep and skip exercise.

“Our study highlights how community violence extends beyond physical harm – it also creates barriers to essential health care like dental visits, which can have long-term consequences for oral health,” Semenza said.

Sources

  • Rutgers University, news release, April 9, 2025

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read this next

Poor Oral Health Potentially Linked To Chronic Health Problems

FRIDAY, July 18, 2025 — Poor dental health could be a harbinger of chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, a new study warns. People with missing teeth...

2020 to 2022 Saw Nearly 2 Million Annual Emergency Room Visits for Dental Issues

FRIDAY, June 13, 2025 -- Tooth disorders accounted for an annual average of 1,944,000 emergency department visits during 2020 to 2022, according to a June data brief published by...

Zicam and Orajel Swabs Recalled for Possible Fungal Contamination

THURSDAY, June 12, 2025 — Some nasal and baby teething swabs from Zicam and Orajel are being recalled across the country because they may be contaminated with fungus, U.S...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.