Project Summary The goal of this project is to focus on the relationship between dental use, overall health, comorbidity, and medical services use. The central hypothesis guiding this study is that dental care use is highly correlated with better-than-average general health and lower levels of comorbidity and utilization of medical services. We will test the hypothesis and conduct this study using secondary data available from the Medicare Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) and Chronic Conditions Warehouse (CCW), Area Health Resources File (AHRF) and the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) Health and Retirement Study (HSR). We will also take advantage of a HRS dental specific module co-developed by members of this research team and the survey staff at the ISR. This proposed project builds upon and is an extension of several collaborative studies previously conducted by this research team. Results obtained from this study will have a high impact on the health and welfare of the Medicare eligible community population by describing which co-morbid states are associated with the presence of oral diseases, whether or not preventive treatments are associated with lower levels of those co-morbid states, and whether or not the use of corrective treatments are associated with amelioration of those co-morbid states in comparison to the frequency and severity of those co-morbid states among individuals whose oral diseases are not treated. Specifically we will: Aim 1. Estimate the relationship between utilization of dental care services by elderly persons and co- morbidities over time. The working hypothesis is that elderly persons not using dental care service are more likely to experience specific co-morbidities compared to those using dental services on a regular basis. Aim 2. Estimate the relationship between preventive dental care service use, oral health problems, and co- morbidities over time by elderly persons. The working hypothesis is that elderly persons with regular use of preventive dental care or without oral health care problems are less likely to experience specific co-morbidities over time than elderly persons not regularly using preventive dental care or with oral health care issues. Aim 3. Estimate the relationship between oral disease and co-morbidities over time for elderly persons. The working hypothesis is that elderly persons with oral disease are more likely over time to experience specific co- morbidities compared to elderly persons without oral disease.