The aim of this study was to document the number of remaining natural
teeth, to examine the prosthetic rehabilitation and to evaluate further
prosthetic treatment needs among a representative sample of
76-86-year-old inhabitants of Helsinki. The edentulous made up 46% (168)
of the subjects, 40% of the men and 48% of the women. Of these
edentulous, 94% (158) wore complete dentures in both jaws, 2% wore only a
maxillary denture, and 4% wore no dentures at all. One edentulous
subject had an implant-supported overdenture in the lower jaw. More than
half (54%) of all subjects had 1-32 natural teeth left. These dentate
subjects had 47% (mean 13.2, excluding the wisdom teeth) of their
natural teeth remaining. Of the remaining teeth, 13% (mean 1.8) were
crowned and 5% (mean 0.6) were indicated to be extracted. Among the
dentate, 37% (mean 10.4) of their natural teeth were missing and
replaced by some type of fixed or removable prosthesis. Eleven per cent
(mean 3.1) of missing teeth had not been replaced and were considered
not to need prosthetic replacement. However, 5% (mean 1.3) of the
missing teeth without prosthetic replacement were judged to need a
prosthesis. Among the dentate, 37% wore a complete denture in one jaw;
34% of the dentate subjects used acrylic removable partial dentures
(ARPD), and 19% used metallic removable partial dentures (MRPD). Of the
dentate, 45% had crowns and fixed bridges. Altogether, 25% wore some
kind of combination of fixed and removable prosthesis, whereas 14% had
no type of prosthetic rehabilitation at all. The age of the current
prosthesis varied from less than one year to over 50 years. Of all the
subjects, 37% (6% of the edentulous and 63% of the dentate) had
experienced inadequate prosthetic rehabilitation