title: Oral impacts and their association with tooth loss in Sri Lankan adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of oral impacts and the association between tooth loss and oral impacts in Sri Lankan adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study where the data were collected by means of a pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire and an oral examination.
  
  
  METHODS
  916 > or = 40 year olds from the Colombo district.
  
  
  METHODS
  Oral impacts were assessed using a validated Sinhalese translation of the Oral Health Impact Profile-14.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of oral impacts was 27%. The most commonly reported impacts were in the domain of physical pain: "pain" and "uncomfortable to eat". Of the 14 oral impacts, tooth loss was associated with only 6 impacts. According to the multiple logistic regression analysis, the prevalence of oral impacts was independently associated with the number of missing teeth, missing anterior teeth and the number of natural occluding premolar pairs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The number of missing teeth and the position of teeth were associated with the reporting of oral impacts in this sample of adults. As the position of missing teeth was related to oral impacts, it could be concluded that all missing teeth do not have the same adverse effect on the physical and psychosocial well-being of the subjects.
authors.affiliation: Dental Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Perera
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ekanayake
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013188:Sri Lanka / Q000453:epidemiology; D009057:Stomatognathic Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000453:epidemiology*