Mortality rates of community-residing adults with and without dentures.
OBJECTIVE
To prospectively study how dental status with and without dentures could become a predictor of overall mortality risk.


METHODS
Five thousand six hundred eighty-eight community residents over 40 years old in the Miyako Islands, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, were followed up for 15 years from 1987-2002.


RESULTS
We found that female subjects with less than 10 functional teeth and without dentures showed a significantly higher mortality rate than those with dentures. There was no significant difference of mortality rates in male subjects. There were no significant differences of mortality rates between subjects with 10 or more functional teeth with and without dentures.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study suggests that dentures are one of the factors associated with mortality rates especially in female subjects with less than 10 functional teeth.
Fukai
Kakuhiro
K
Fukai Institute of Health Science, Saitama, Japan. fukaik@fihs.org
Takiguchi
Toru
T
Ando
Yuichi
Y
Aoyama
Hitoshi
H
Miyakawa
Youko
Y
Ito
Gakuji
G
Inoue
Masakazu
M
Sasaki
Hidetada
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003778:Dentures / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009066:Mouth, Edentulous / Q000401:mortality*; D009909:Oral Health; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015996:Survival Rate