The shortened dental arch: supplementary analyses from the 1988 adult dental health survey.

Information on 2297 dentate adults, aged 15-75+ years, who participated in the 1988 national survey of adult dental health in the United Kingdom, was reviewed in order to determine what proportion in each age group fulfilled the criteria for a 'shortened dental arch'. The proportion of people with four good quadrants was 90 per cent at 16-24 years falling to 2 per cent at 65-74 years. Overall, 54 per cent of the sample had four good quadrants. This is a more stringent measure of dental health than the proportion with 21 or more standing teeth, where the corresponding values were 100 per cent, 24 per cent and 80 per cent.