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Oral health of community‐dwelling older Australian men: the Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project ( CHAMP )
Author(s) -
Wright FAC,
Chu SKY,
Milledge KL,
Valdez E,
Law G,
Hsu B,
Naganathan V,
Hirani V,
Blyth FM,
Le Couteur DG,
Harford J,
Waite LM,
Handelsman DJ,
Seibel MJ,
Cumming RG
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
australian dental journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.701
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1834-7819
pISSN - 0045-0421
DOI - 10.1111/adj.12564
Subject(s) - ageing , gerontology , oral health , medicine , healthy ageing , older people , family medicine
Background The Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project ( CHAMP ) is a cohort study of the health of a representative sample of Australian men aged 70 years and older. The aim of this report is to describe the oral health of these men. Methods Oral health was assessed when the men were all aged 78 years or older. Two calibrated examiners conducted a standardized intraoral assessment. Descriptive data were analysed by statistical association tests. Participants were excluded from the collection of some periodontal assessments if they had a medical contraindication. Results Dental assessments of 614 participants revealed 90 (14.6%) were edentate. Men had a mean of 13.8 missing teeth and 10.3 filled teeth. Dentate participants had a mean of 1.1 teeth with active coronal decay. Those in the low‐income group had a higher rate of decayed teeth and lower rate of filled teeth. Thirty‐four participants (5.5%) had one or more dental implants, and 66.3% relied on substitute natural teeth for functional occlusion. Of those with full periodontal assessments; 90.9% had sites with pocket depths of 3 mm or more, 96.6% had sites with CAL of 5 mm or more, and 79.7% had three or more sites with GI scores of 2 or more. Conclusions There was a high prevalence of periodontal diseases and restorative burden of dentitions, which suggests that greater attention needs to be given to prevention and health maintenance in older Australian men.