A sampling survey of remaining teeth and edentulous jaw arch in people aged 35-74 in Guangdong Province (2015-2016)

To investigate the current status of remaining teeth and edentulous jaw arch of people aged 35-44, 55-64 and 65- 74 in Guangdong province.

An equal- sized stratified multi-stage randomly sampling design was applied to select a total of 288 Guangdong residents in urban and rural areas, and the subjects were between the age of 35-44, 55-64 and 65-74, with a gender ratio of half to half. The status of remaining teeth and edentulous jaw arch were assessed according to the Guideline for the 4^th National Oral Health Survey.

88.89% subjects in the 35-44 year group had more than 28 teeth and 100% subjects had more than 20 teeth, with an average of 29.88 teeth remaining and no edentulous jaw. The average remaining teeth was 26.06 in the group of 55-64 year, with 87.50% subjects having more than 20 teeth, 59.03% subjects having 28 or more teeth, 4.16% subjects having single edentulous jaw arch, and 1.04% subjects having both edentulous jaw arch. 73.96% and 35.07% subjects in the group of 65-74 year had 20 above or 28 above remaining teeth, respectively, and the average teeth was 22.94. There were 8.34% subjects having single edentulous jaw arch and 1.39% subjects having both edentulous jaws. In the 35-44 and 65-74 year group, the prevalence of missing teeth in the female was significantly higher than the male (P < 0.05), while no significant difference was found between urban and rural areas (P > 0.05). More remaining teeth were noticed in current survey (2015) when compared to the data in 2005 (P < 0.05).

The 35-44 year people have few lost teeth, and over half of the elderly people have several lost teeth. Elderly people with edentulous arch are very few.