Journal vol.5 no.1 abstract2 of The Japan Health Care Dental Association

The Journal of The Japan Health Care Dental Association Vol.5 No.1, 2003
abstract

Michio Oguchi, Takashi Kumagai

According to the report of the survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare into dental diseases DMFT index (1999), and data from 4,396 new patients’ (ages 10 years and above) dentitions at Hiyoshi Dental Office in Sakata-city, the following hypothesis can be suggested: many people undergo restorative treatments in their teens and early twenties, which will be repeated until they finally end up with extraction, typically in their 50’s. To test the hypothesis, the reasons for each treatment (i.e. CR restorations, mental inlays, crowns,) were researched on a tooth-by-tooth basis. Research subjects were 88 new patients (28 male and 60 female patients) at the Hiyoshi Dental Office ages 30, 40, 50 and 60, whose collective teeth amounted to 2,446 (1,050 front teeth, 1,396 molars and premolars). For further investigations, 348 patients who were new to the Hiyoshi Dental Office before the year 2000 are also counted as research subjects, on the same basis. On average, the following features were found in the results; teeth maintained healthy until maturity showed less tendency to need treatment thereafter; the number of treated teeth with dental pulp declined as the patient’s age increased, the number of treated teeth without dental pulp increased till the age of 50 and then decreased after the age of 60; treatments occurred considerably more often on treated teeth than healthy teeth; teeth with severe loss of the root (loss of half or more the root of a tooth) are rare (1.9% at 50 years old); most reasons for the extraction are derived from caries. This information corroborates with the hypothesis. Hereafter, prospective studies based on patients’ individual dentition information will help clarify problems in restorative treatments at earlier ages, and lead to a more preventative approach resulting in lifetime health benefits.