EDENTULOUSNESS AND ITS REHABILITATION OVER A 10-YEAR PERIOD IN A FINNISH URBAN AREA

In 1977-78, a baseline study group of 449 Finnish adults aged 30 years and over was examined in an urban area with a very high supply of den tal services. The follow-up study in 1988 represents longitudinal data on 297 of these adults. In 1989 a new sample of persons aged 30-39 ye ars was also obtained to provide cross-sectional information comparabl e to that of the corresponding age group in the 1977-78 survey. At bas eline in 1977-78, the prevalence of total tooth loss was 19.4% for adu lts aged 30 years and over. The corresponding figures for maxillary an d mandibular edentulousness alone were 16.7% and 0.4% respectively. Ni nety-four percent of totally edentulous and 89.6% of single-arch edent ulous subjects were prosthetically rehabilitated. In the follow-up stu dy, 7.7% of the originally dentate women and 6.7% of men had lost the rest of their teeth. For the new totally edentulous subjects the mean number of teeth lost was 5.7 (s 3.45), most of which were incisors. In the follow-up study, 89% of the new edentulous subjects had already b een edentulous in the maxilla at baseline. Among 30-39-year-olds the p roportions of upper-arch and totally edentulous subjects in 1977-78/19 89 were 6.7%/0.8% and 2.2%/0.8% respectively (P=0.024 for the differen ce between the time points). In the light of the repeated cross-sectio nal study, we can conclude that edentulism is very uncommon in the 30- 39-year age group in this urban area.