INCIDENCE OF AND RISK-FACTORS FOR TOOTH LOSS IN A POPULATION OF OLDERCANADIANS

Data on the incidence of tooth loss in community-dwelling older Canadi ans have not previously been reported. Since recent US studies of olde r adults were conducted in predominantly rural communities, their resu lts may not be generalizable to Canada, where the majority of older ad ults live in major metropolitan or urban settings. This paper describe s a study designed to estimate the incidence of tooth loss in older Ca nadians and to identify factors predictive of that loss. Using persona l interviews and clinical examinations, we obtained baseline and three -year follow-up data from 491 dentate subjects. Overall, 23.2% lost on e or more teeth between baseline and follow-up. Only six, or 1.2%, bec ame edentulous. Twelve baseline factors were significantly associated with the probability of loss. However, in a logistic regression analys is, only five had significant independent effects. These were gender, marital status, self-rating of oral health status, the number of decay ed root surfaces, and a mean periodontal attachment loss of 4 mm or mo re. The predictive ability of the model was poor, largely because toot h loss is a complex outcome which depends on decisions taken by dentis ts and patients. Since this decisionmaking process cannot be captured in epidemiological studies, observational studies are needed to cast f urther Light on tooth loss in this population.