Prevalence of tooth loss and dental service use in older Mexican Americans

OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence of tooth loss, to examine risk facto rs for having fewer teeth or no teeth, and to describe the use of dental se rvices in an older Mexican-American population. DESIGN: Data from the baseline phase of the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly survey conducted from 1993 to 1994, a cross-sectional survey of older Mexican Americans. SETTING: Five southwestern states: Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. PARTICIPANTS: 3,050 noninstitutionalized Mexican Americans age 65 to 99. RESULTS: Twenty-seven percent of the sample was completely edentulous and 2 2% reported visiting or speaking with a dental care professional in the pre ceding year. Logistic regression analyses showed that being older or being female was significantly associated with tooth loss, adjusting for educatio n, income, smoking status, and diabetes mellitus. Current smelters (odds ra tio (OR) = 1.69; 95% CI = 1.31-2.20) and diabetics (OR = 1.53; 95% CI = 1.2 7-1.84) were more at risk for tooth loss, as were persons of lower socioeco nomic status. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of tooth loss and use of dental services in thi s population of older Mexican Americans is lower than what has been previou sly found among older people in the general population.