Broken smiles: The impact of untreated dental caries and missing anterior teeth on employment.

Objectives: We aimed to quantify the impact of dental caries and missing anterior teeth on employment, estimate the impact of a routine dental visit on the health of anterior teeth, and the benefits of expanding dental coverage for nonelderly adults.

Methods: We used the 2013-2014 Continuous National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey to develop a dental problem index (DPI) using tooth counts and tooth surface conditions. We estimated the impact of DPI on employment with logistic regression, controlling for seven demographic and socioeconomic covariates.