Caries and total extraction in a medium-sized city in the Netherlands

In 1982 a combined sociodental research project was started in the city of Groningen in order to gain insight into the dental and social reasons for total extraction. 91% of the dentists in the city participated in this study by collecting the extracted teeth, filling out a questionnaire and asking their patients to fill out another questionnaire concerning the behavioral aspects of total tooth loss. 78% of the 134 patients returned the questionnaire. In this article the caries status in relation to the social background and dental attendance pattern has been described. The mean age at the time of extraction was 44.2 yr. The patients were a good cross-section of the Dutch population as regards education level, type of health insurance and sex. The average number of teeth was 14.2. The average DEMFT value was 22.8. Although regular attenders had less D-teeth than irregular attenders they had an average of 3.5 teeth with active caries. Regular attenders had more F-teeth but less sound teeth than irregular attenders. The contribution of the dental health care system to the dental health of the population is discussed.