Differences Between the Oral Health of People Aged 50 and 70 Years – An Exploratory Cohort Study

Klotz, Anna-Luisa / Grill, Sabine Katharina / Hassel, Alexander Jochen / Rammelsberg, Peter / Ze nthöfer, AndreasPage 239 - 243Purpose: To assess the extent of differences between the oral health of people aged 50 and 70 years in a community-based setting.Materials and Methods: This research is part of the Interdisciplinary Study on Adult Development (ILSE). All participants lived in the city of Heidelberg, Germany. For the dental study, 194 participants born 1930 –1932 (n = 88) or 1950–1952 (n = 106) underwent a comprehensive dental examination. For each participant the number of teeth present, the number of decayed, missing, and filled tooth surfaces (DMF-S), the Plaque Index (PI), the Gingiva Index (GI) and the Community Index of Periodontal Treatment Needs (CPITN) were determined. Depending on the structure of the data, differences between the birth cohorts were calculated by use of t tests or chi-squared tests. Multivariate analysis was also performed to assess possible effects of gender and birth cohort.Results: Oral health conditions were significantly worse among septuagenarians than among quinquagenarians. Besides poorer oral hygiene, as measured by use of PI and GI (p
Source: Oral health and Preventive dentistry - Category: Dentistry Source Type: research