Infrequent Dental Visits Research Articles

The aim of this investigation was to study associations between the state of dentition and socio-medical aspects in psoriatics. It was found that the number of remaining teeth in subjects under 65 years of age was higher in psoriatics with skin symptoms (P-group) than in psoriatics with skin and joint symptoms (PA-group) (P less than 0.01), this rate being higher than that found among the general population in Finland. In younger subjects, women in the P-group wore removable dentures more frequently than did women in the PA-group (P less than 0.05), whereas among older subjects men in the PA-group wore removable dentures more frequently than did men in the P-group (P less than 0.001). In the log-linear model that was applied, more advanced age, lower level of education and infrequent dental visits were associated with a low number of remaining teeth in both the P-group and the PA-group. A poor general state of health in the P-group and a high number of teeth, indicating that there is an association between severity of general disease and dental health status.

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