title: Prevalence and quality of endodontic treatment in an elderly urban population of Switzerland.
abstract: Little oral health data on the elderly are available in Switzerland. This study assessed endodontic findings in 66-yr-old residents of the city of Zurich using intraoral radiographs. Of the 143 volunteers having a total of 2004 natural teeth, 78% had at least one endodontically treated tooth. Twenty percent of all teeth were root filled, two thirds of them being in the upper jaw. Sixty-four percent of the root fillings were judged insufficient and 8.5% of all teeth showed periapical radiolucencies, most of the latter (73%) being associated with insufficient root canal treatments. Ninety-eight percent of the root-filled teeth had intracanal retentive devices. Fifty-two percent of the teeth with insufficient root fillings were judged not to need revision, 37% needed revision, 9% needed apicectomy, and 2% were ready for extraction. The considerable endodontic treatment needs of the elderly can only be reduced by an improvement of quality of initial endodontic treatment.
authors.affiliation: Dental Institute, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Imfeld
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016321:Dental Care for Aged / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012390:Root Canal Therapy / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013557:Switzerland; D014505:Urban Population