A comparison of dental caries and tooth loss for Iowa prisoners with other prison populations and dentate U.S. adults.

PURPOSE

When one compares National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) data to previous national surveys it appears that oral health in the United States has improved. The purpose of this study was to determine if this trend holds for prisoners in Iowa, specifically in regard to number of decayed teeth, number of decayed surfaces, and number of missing teeth.

METHODS

This original research is a report of cross-sectional data regarding untreated decay and missing teeth. A representative sample of inmates newly admitted to the Iowa Medical Classification Center (IMCC) between June and December 1998 was selected. Oral health data were collected from records obtained as the result of dental treatment screening examinations conducted by the IMCC staff dental hygienist. Demographic data were obtained from questionnaires. The oral health status of this Iowa inmate population was compared with the status of previously studied samples of inmates throughout the nation using descriptive and parametric statistics and with dentate, noninstitutionalized U.S. adults using descriptive, non-parametric, and parametric statistics.

RESULTS

Of the 174 study participants, 149 were male and 25 were female. On average, male inmates had 7.09 decayed teeth, 15.3 surfaces of decay, and 4.07 missing teeth. The female inmates averaged 5.56 teeth with untreated decay, 14.4 surfaces of decay, and 5.12 missing teeth. Findings showed that male Iowa inmates have more untreated decay than previously studied samples of inmates throughout the nation. IMCC Caucasian male inmates had 1.6 to 7.8 times as many untreated decayed teeth as previous inmates, while African American inmates showed 1.2 to 3.4 times as many untreated decayed teeth. The Iowa male inmates had fewer missing teeth than most of the inmate comparison groups. Compared with dentate, noninstitutionalized U.S. adults, the IMCC inmates, male and female combined, had 8.4 times the amount of untreated decay but similar numbers of missing teeth.

CONCLUSIONS

Newly admitted male and female inmates were disparate from the general dentate U.S. adult population in terms of untreated decay. This also was found for IMCC male inmates compared to previous studies of male inmates. Inmates of both genders at IMCC did not appear to be disparate with the comparison population with regard to number of missing teeth.