Title Children's Dental Service Utilisation and Geographic Inequality in Latvia: A Cross-Sectional Study of National Health Service Data Authors Sergio E. Uribe, Zane Freimane, Daiga Behmane, Ilze Maldupa Description This preprint reports a cross-sectional analysis of state-funded dental service utilisation among children in Latvia during 2022. We analysed 2,887,699 dental procedures from 447,849 visits recorded by the National Health Service. Despite universal state funding for children under 18 years, only 36.7% attended a dentist during 2022. Utilisation was lowest in early childhood (0.2% at age 0, 18% at age 3) and peaked at age 7 years (57.4%). Geographic inequality was substantial: dentist coverage ranged from 13.7% to 62.6% across municipalities. Several regions lacked dental hygienist services entirely. These findings indicate that funding alone does not ensure access to dental care. Policy interventions should address workforce distribution and barriers to care in underserved regions. This work is part of the EpiDentLatvia project at Riga Stradins University. Keywords dental service utilisation; children; universal health coverage; geographic inequality; Latvia; oral health; health services research Related identifiers Part of the EpiDentLatvia project (RSU-ZG-2024/1-0044) Funding This research is conducted under the Scientist Grant "EpiDentLatvia" (RSU-ZG-2024/1-0044), as part of the project "RSU Internal and RSU with LASE External Consolidation" (Project No. 5.2.1.1.i.0/2/24/I/CFLA/005), funded by the European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility and the state budget of the Republic of Latvia. License CC-BY 4.0 Resource type Preprint Language English