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With increasing age, the proportion of older individuals visiting a dental clinic decreases. The aim was to gain insight into a) whether frailty or dental status were associated with visiting a dental clinic and b) their perceived barriers to accessing oral health care. Individuals eligible for the yearly influenza vaccination in Winschoten, The Netherlands, were invited to participate in a questionnaire survey about dental visits and perceived barriers to such visits. A total of 1027 individuals aged 60+ completed the questionnaire − 80% of the non-frail, 71% of the mildly frail and 60% of the moderately to severe frail individuals visited a dental clinic in the previous year. Dental status was the crucial determinant for not visiting a dental clinic. Edentate individuals were more likely to drop out of the dental care system than dentate individuals or individuals with partial prostheses. A higher proportion of moderately and severe frail people were edentate than non-frail or mildly frail people. Barriers to visiting a dentist were making an appointment, costs, and services available. Conclusions: Dental clinicians should pay attention to the barriers that they can influence. The influenza vaccination seems to be an interesting momentum for identifying people who have dropped out of the oral healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Although associations between number of teeth and mortality have been found in some studies, the results have not been conclusive. The aim of this study was to determine whether dental status at age 75 is an independent predictor of survival in three Nordic populations. Material and Methods. The baseline study was conducted as part of a comparative Nordic investigation of systematic samples of 75-year-old men and women born in the period 1914-16 (n=1004) and living independently in three Nordic localities: Glostrup in Denmark, Jyväskylä in Finland, and Göteborg in Sweden. Performed in 1989-91, the study included a home interview, a health questionnaire, and a laboratory examination. For the present study, the mortality data of all participants up to age 82 were collected from official registers in 1999. Results. Lower mortality during 7 years was associated with higher number of remaining teeth at age 75. In Jyväskylä and Göteborg, but not in Glostrup, the association between number of teeth and mortality was statistically significant. For all three samples pooled and adjusted for sex and location, this association was significant (odds ratio 0.86; p<0.001). Conclusions. Number of teeth is a significant predictor of 7-year mortality in 75-year-old women independently of a number of factors related to lifestyle, disease, and reduced functional capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk factors for poor dental health include obesity, low socio-economic status, poor dietary habits, and dental anxiety. The aim of this study was to explore the complex relation between body mass index (BMI) and number of teeth in middle-aged women taking education, dietary intake patterns, dental care utilization, and dental anxiety into account. Three groups of women (37-60 years): reference women (group I, BMI 23.8 +/- 3.1 kg/m2), obese women (group II, BMI 35.0 +/- 2.6 kg/m2), and severely obese women (group III, BMI 41.0 +/- 3.4 kg/m2) were included. Questionnaires were used to assess education, smoking, number of teeth, dental care utilization, dental anxiety, dietary intake, and meal patterns. Age, education, and smoking habits did not differ significantly between groups. However, there were significant global differences in number of teeth (27.2 +/- 3.4, 23.0 +/- 9.2, 24.7 +/- 5.9) and reported daily energy intake (9756 +/- 3363 kJ, 10344 +/- 3850 kJ, 11970 +/- 3786 kJ in groups I, II, and m, respectively). In a multiple regression model, a lower number of teeth was independently associated with higher age, higher BMI, lower education, irregular dental care, high dental anxiety, higher energy intake, and lower iron intake. These variables explained 25% of the variation in number of teeth. In conclusion, BMI is an independent predictor of number of teeth in middle-aged women when socio-economic, dietary, and psychological factors are taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999, questionnaires were sent to random samples of 1001 Swedish citizens aged 55-79 years and 1175 Danish citizens aged 45-69 years. Various questions were asked concerning dental conditions, dental visit frequency per year, and money spent annually on dental care, etc. The objectives were to assess differences in the utilization of dental services and to compare out-of-pocket costs for dental care in Sweden and Denmark with control for age, gender, dental conditions and income. More than 80% of the subjects reported that a dentist had examined them less than 1 year previously. However, 77% of the Danes reported dental visits twice a year or more compared to 28% of the Swedes. Although the Danes reported a more frequent use of dental services, they had poorer dental conditions compared to the Swedes. Even though the Swedes used dental services less often than the Danes did, more subjects reported high 12-month out-of-pocket costs. In the present study, separate models were constructed for the two countries because there could be different mechanisms at play, as indicated by the results. The different insurance systems along with different degrees of commercialization in the two countries might be the most decisive factors in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]