| Sumario: | Objective. To investigate the factors associated with inequality in the use of oral health services in the Brazilian Family Health Program (Estratégia Saúde da Família, ESF) as measured by dental extractions. Methods. A population-based household survey was carried out in two municipalities with full coverage by the ESF in the state of Bahia, Brazil. Ten census tracts were randomly selected. Households were selected by systematic sampling. To assess the use of public services by the population, a prevalence of 50%, sampling error of 4%, and confidence interval of 95% were considered. Trained community health workers conducted key informant interviews on use of oral health services and collected demographic data for all household members aged 15 years or older. Dental extraction was the main outcome. The association between dental extraction and predictive variables was assessed using prevalence ratio, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed using odds ratio (OR). Results. Data from 2 539 people was collected. Of these, 682 (26.86%) had used primary oral health care services in the previous 12 months. Dental extraction was performed in 218 (31.96%) out of 682 primary care patients. Being assisted by social programs (OR = 1.43; IC95%: 1.02-2.01), being older than 35 years (OR = 1.59; IC95%: 1.12-2.27), and having lower education levels (OR = 1.81; IC95%: 1.27-2.56) were independently associated with the outcome. Conclusions. The present results suggest that historical inequalities of access to oral health services persist. Intersectoral actions may play an important role in improving oral health conditions.
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