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Meta-Analysis
. 2014 Jul;93(7 Suppl):20S-28S.
doi: 10.1177/0022034514537828.

Global Burden of Severe Tooth Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Global Burden of Severe Tooth Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

N J Kassebaum et al. J Dent Res. 2014 Jul.

Abstract

The goal of the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Study has been to systematically produce comparable estimates of the burden of 291 diseases and injuries and their associated 1,160 sequelae from 1990 to 2010. We aimed to report here internally consistent prevalence and incidence estimates of severe tooth loss for all countries, 20 age groups, and both sexes for 1990 and 2010. The systematic search of the literature yielded 5,618 unique citations. After titles and abstracts were screened, 5,285 citations were excluded as clearly not relevant to this systematic review, leaving 333 for full-text review; 265 publications were further excluded following the validity assessment. A total of 68 studies-including 285,746 individuals aged 12 yr or older in 26 countries-were included in the meta-analysis using modeling resources of the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Study. Between 1990 and 2010, the global age-standardized prevalence of edentate people decreased from 4.4% (95% uncertainty interval: 4.1%, 4.8%) to 2.4% (95% UI: 2.2%, 2.7%), and incidence rate decreased from 374 cases per 100,000 person-years (95% UI: 347, 406) to 205 cases (95% UI: 187, 226). No differences were found by sex in 2010. Prevalence increased gradually with age, showing a steep increase around the seventh decade of life that was associated with a peak in incidence at 65 years. Geographic differences in prevalence, incidence, and rate of improvement from 1990 to 2010 were stark. Our review of available quality literature on the epidemiology of tooth loss shows a significant decline in the prevalence and incidence of severe tooth loss between 1990 and 2010 at the global, regional, and country levels.

Keywords: edentate; epidemiology; extracted teeth; global health; missing teeth; toothless.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flowchart of the selection of studies for the review.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Prevalence (proportion) and number of incident cases of severe tooth loss in 1990 (light line) and 2010 (dark line) with 95% uncertainty intervals by age.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Age-standardized prevalence (proportion) of severe tooth loss in 2010 worldwide.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Age-standardized incidence (per 100,000 person-years) of severe tooth loss in 2010 worldwide.

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