Oral health status in an adult Swedish population. Prevalence of teeth, removable dentures and occlusal supporting zones.

The present study, which is part of a comprehensive cross-sectional epidemiologic survey on oral health among the adult population in a Swedish county, reports the results from the clinical assessment of remaining teeth, "occlusal supporting zones" (Eichner 1955), prevalence of edentulousness and removable dentures. The survey was carried out during 1983-1984. The adult population of 122,886 inhabitants was stratified according to age, sex and place of residence. From the different strata 0.75% (1.5% above 79 years) of the population was randomly selected to participate in the survey. Of the 967 selected individuals 920 (95.1%) attended full examination. The results showed a gradual reduction in the mean number of remaining teeth by age; somewhat faster after the age of 50 coincident with a significant increase in the prevalence of edentulousness. The prevalence of edentulousness and complete dentures was about twice as high among women as among men. In the dentate individuals the occlusal status was less favorable among men. This finding may explain the observed higher prevalence of removable partial dentures among the dentate men compared to the dentate women. An extrapolation between the results from the present study and results from previous studies in the Swedish population indicates that the oral health in the population below 50 years of age has improved during the last decade. This trend may predict that the observed improvement will follow the population, at present younger than 50 years, up through the ages.