A 5-YEAR STUDY OF ATTACHMENT LOSS AND TOOTH LOSS IN COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER ADULTS

Tooth loss is a widely recognized endpoint measure for the effects of periodontal diseases and the impact of periodontal therapy. In fact, t raditional clinical measures of periodontal status often are considere d to be surrogate endpoints in that they are assumed to be related to tooth loss. However, the strength of the relationship between attachme nt loss and tooth loss in a representative population of untreated sub jects has not been studied extensively. The purpose of this paper is t o present the trends in attachment loss over a 5-yr period in a popula tion of community-dwelling elderly blacks and whites. Specifically, th is paper presents attachment loss trends both at the person and tooth level to address the following issues; 1) whether teeth that experienc e attachment loss during 1 time period are more likely to be lost at t he next lime period; and 2) given similar levels of attachment loss, w hy are some people more likely to lose teeth? In 1988, the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry initiated the Piedmont 65+ Denta l Study, which was designed to elicit 800 dentate respondents in the 5 -county area who were examined again at 18, 36 and 60 months. Our find ings indicated that teeth with poorer attachment level at baseline had a higher probability of being lost during the next 5 yr and teeth tha t experienced attachment loss during a time period were more likely to be lost during the next time period than teeth without additional att achment loss. In addition, it appears that there art: person-level cha racteristics associated with increasing tendency towards tooth loss in people with similar periodontal status, a finding that may clarify th e relationship between attachment loss and tooth loss.