ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: We examined the association between total tooth loss and bone mineral density to determine whether the former can be used as a surrogate marker of the latter. DESIGN: A community based cross-sectional survey. SETTING: The community-study area of the Faculty of Medicine, Galle. PARTICIPANTS: A group of randomly selected 327 women volunteers aged 32 to 97 years. MEASUREMENTS: Anthropometry, total number of teeth lost and bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine and proximal femur. RESULTS: In categorical analysis, after adjusting for possible confounding factors, mean BMDs of the spine and proximal femur showed no significant differences in the thirds of the total tooth loss. In regression analysis, a loss of one tooth was negatively associated with spine BMD of premenopausal women by 0.003 g/cm2 and the trochanteric BMD of postmenopausal and all women by 0.001 g/cm2. These associations, however, were not seen in other skeletal sites. CONCLUSIONS: Total tooth loss did not show a uniform and significant association with bone mineral density, measured at relevant skeletal sites. Total tooth loss as a surrogate marker of low bone density cannot be justified in this population of women.