An approach to epidemiologic assessment of complete dentures

Abstract

The condition of complete dentures was studied in an epidemiologic investigation of a representative sample of 241 persons aged 65–79 in the county of Troms in Northern Norway using an index comprising six professionally assessed indicators. These indicators were: Defects of the dentures, denture material, stability, retention, occlusion and denture-related mucosal lesions. Three scoring systems denoted system 1, 2 and 3 were applied to determine their influence on the distribution of unsatisfactory dentures. System 1 and 2 which contain weighted indicators, differ mainly in the weighting of retention and occlusion, while system 3 has only unweighted dichotomized indicators. The condition of the dentures was graded: Satisfactory—grade 0 and unsatisfactory—grades I, II, III, depending upon the number of unsatisfactory indicators. The result of the judgment did not reveal any significant difference between the systems, although system 3 differed somewhat. Unsatisfactory upper dentures were usually caused by inadequate denture material and/or denture-related lesions. For lower dentures the corresponding factors usually were denture defects and inadequate denture material. For the purpose of planning public geriatric programs and from a methodologic epidemiologic point of view, the simplified dichotomous system seems preferable. It is easier to apply for the epidemiologist, and appears to be amenable to statistical analysis.