The effect of hormone replacement therapy on salivary calcium concentrations in menopausal women.

Hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women is known to affect the general calcium turnover of the body. No information is available about the effects of hormone therapy on salivary electrolytes and on calcium in particular. A group of 16 healthy peri- and postmenopausal women, all recommended to start hormone replacement therapy, were studied longitudinally for 5 months. Paraffin-stimulated whole saliva was collected at baseline, at 3 and at 5 months after the onset of therapy, and analysed for calcium, sodium and potassium concentrations. In response to hormone replacement therapy, calcium concentration decreased (p = 0.037), that of sodium increased (p = 0.019), while no change was observed in the potassium concentrations during the follow-up period.

Edentulousness and its rehabilitation over a 10-year period in a Finnish urban area.

In 1977 78, a baseline study group of 449 Finnish adults aged 30 years and over was examined in an urban area with a very high supply of dental services. The follow-up study in 1988 represents longitudinal data on 297 of these adults. In 1989 a new sample of persons aged 30-39 years was also obtained to provide cross-sectional information comparable to that of the corresponding age group in the 1977-78 survey. At baseline in 1977-78, the prevalence of total tooth loss was 19.4% for adults aged 30 years and over. The corresponding figures for maxillary and mandibular edentulousness alone were 16.7% and 0.4% respectively. Ninety-four percent of totally edentulous and 89.6% of single-arch edentulous subjects were prosthetically rehabilitated. In the follow-up study, 7.7% of the originally dentate women and 6.7% of men had lost the rest of their teeth. For the new totally edentulous subjects the mean number of teeth lost was 5.7 (s 3.45), most of which were incisors. In the follow-up study, 89% of the new edentulous subjects had already been edentulous in the maxilla at baseline. Among 30-39-year-olds the proportions of upper-arch and totally edentulous subjects in 1977-78/1989 were 6.7%/0.8% and 2.2%/0.8% respectively (P=0.024 for the difference between the time points). In the light of the repeated cross-sectional study, we can conclude that edentulism is very uncommon in the 30-39-year age group in this urban area.

Missing teeth and lost teeth of adults aged 30 years and over in south-western Finland.

The majority of Finnish adults have lost one, some or all of their teeth. The prosthetic replacement of missing teeth has thus been an important element of adult dental care. However, there have been no longitudinal studies focusing on the development of oral health among the Finnish adult population in terms of further tooth loss. A baseline sample from 1977-78 was selected from the city of Turku to represent the adult population aged 30 years and over. Ten years later, a follow-up examination was carried out on this baseline study group. A new sample of persons aged 30-39 years was also obtained to provide cross-sectional information, allowing comparisons between this study group and the youngest age-group of the 1977-78 study. In 1977-78, 52 per cent of all subjects had 20 or more remaining teeth. The mean number of missing teeth was 15.8 (SD 11.05) and the corresponding median 12 teeth. The number of missing teeth was on average higher in the older age-groups (P < 0.001). Women had more missing teeth than men (P < 0.01). In the ten-year follow-up study, the mean number of lost teeth was 1.5 (SD 2.32) and the median one tooth. The average number of lost teeth increased with age (P < 0.01). The rate of tooth loss was highest for those with 10 to 19 teeth at baseline, second highest for those with one to nine teeth and lowest for those with 20 to 32 teeth (P < 0.001). The reasons most often reported for tooth extraction were tooth mobility, pain and prosthetic treatment. In the cross-sectional study groups of persons aged 30-39 years, the proportion of subjects with a complete natural dentition of 28 to 32 teeth was 63.4 per cent in 1989, compared with 40.0 per cent ten years earlier. The average number of missing teeth was lower in 1989 than in 1977-78 (mean 4.7, SD 3.81 vs. mean 7.8, SD 6.92; P < 0.001). In both cross-sectional examinations women had a higher mean number of missing teeth than men. However, the difference between the genders was statistically significant only in 1977-78 (P < 0.01). Among the age-group of 30-39 years, there has been a considerable improvement in retention of natural teeth during the ten-year interval. However, among the middle-aged and elderly population reduced dentition was common; in addition, extraction was still used as a dental treatment especially among persons with reduced dentition. This suggests that the need for prosthetic replacement of lost teeth will continue to play a role in adult dental care in Finland for some decades to come.

Burning mouth in a Finnish adult population.

Burning mouth syndrome is an oral pain disorder with a prevalence of 5-18% in patient materials. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Burning mouth syndrome in a representative sample of the general adult population. Altogether 431 subjects (237 females, 194 males) participated in the study. Subjects were questioned about the experience of prolonged burning sensation; the site, severity, pattern, duration and possible associations of the onset of the burning sensation, and a thorough clinical examination was performed. In all, 15% of the subjects had experienced prolonged oral burning but a half of them had some clinically observable oral mucosal lesion or oral candidosis. The prevalence of the complaint was significantly higher in females than in males.