Are You Going to Lose Your Teeth When You Get Old?
Oral health is a concern for the elderly. What about you? Do you worry as you age that your teeth are going to age gracefully or are they all going to fall out? After all, teeth should be pretty durable, right? It might be true that tooth loss is greater as you get older, but does that mean tooth loss is age related? An 18 month study done in Iowa in 1988 says something along those lines. Although the study was done over 20 years ago, there are still some relevant results that are worth mentioning. The study was over an 18 month period of a population aged 65 and older that resided in two different Iowa counties. Data was collected by interviews, dental examinations and then an 18 month follow-up. During this study 25 had died during the 18 months, and 13 had moved or were too ill to participate in the follow up. So of the 482 people available to follow-up, 451 participated. It was found that seventy-nine percent of the s...