Oral health access in Brazil: analysis of inequities and non-access from the service user's perspective, according to the National Primary Care Access and Quality Improvement Program, 2014 and 2018.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate factors associated with non-access to oral health in Brazil. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of data from external evaluations of the National Primary Care Access and Quality Improvement Program (2014 and 2018), using hierarchical multivariate logistic regression. 'Non-access' was defined as the service user not being able to make an appointment with a dentist. RESULTS: We analyzed data on 37.262 individuals (2014 sample) and on a further 117.570 individuals (2018 sample). Greater likelihood of non-access was found for those who live in municipalities with greater inequalities and with less oral health coverage, those whose travel time to the health center is more than 11 minutes, being female, being aged between 25 and 39 years and those whose income was up to 1 minimum wage. CONCLUSION: Non-access was associated with municipal factors such as greater inequality; organizational factors such as less oral health coverage and travel time to the health center; and individual factors such as sex, age and income.