Abstract
The aged population has increased rapidly in Korea. The proportion of senior persons aged over 65 surpassed 7% of the population in 2000, and it is expected to reach 14% by 2020. A total of 96.4% experienced dental caries and an average decayed, missing and filled teeth score was 12 in the age of 65–74. Another 21.7% of those aged 65–74 and 33.4% aged over 75 had upper full dentures, and 14.8% of those aged 65–74 and 24.7% aged over 65 had lower full dentures. With aging, the prevalence of ‘difficulty in chewing’, ‘trouble in pronouncing’ and ‘food catching’, had increased. With ‘headaches’, prevalence was 2.3 times higher for females than for males. For ‘painful gum’, prevalence was 1.4 times higher for females than for males and 1.8 times for removable denture wearers than for dentate persons. A highlight is that Koreans (96.5%) are benefited primary and secondary dental care by National Health Insurance, and 3.5% among 48 million Koreans have been supplied free health care, except prosthetic and esthetic dental care.
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