• Aree Jainkittivong

Objectives  The objectives of this study were to obtain information on the incidence and pattern of tooth loss among elderly dental patients and to investigate the association between tooth loss and systemic conditions

Subjects and methods  510 dental patients attending the Chulalongkorn University Dental School, aged 60 years and older were interviewed for their systemic conditions and were examined for all missing teeth.

Results  The incidence of tooth loss, edentulousness and the number of missing teeth whereas 12.5% were completely edentulous. Of the 510 elderly, the mean number of missing teeth was 16.7 per person. Women were not different from men for the mean number of missing teeth. Molars were the most commonly lost teeth, whereas canines were the least commonly lost teeth. The mean number of retained roots, found in 136 elderly patients, was 2.3 per person. The retained roots were found more common in the maxilla than the mandible. There were no differences in the incidence and number of retained roots between age and gender. Four hundred and twenty-one elderly patients have at least one systemic disease. The mean number of missing teeth in the elderly who had systemic diseases was not different from those who had no disease. Also, there were no association between the edentulousness and systemic conditions.

Conclusions  The present study supports the findings of previous reports in that the incidence of tooth loss and number of missing teeth are high in the elderly and increase with age. There is no association between tooth loss and systemic conditions found in this study.

(CU Dent J 2003;26:61-71)