Chewing ability in relation to tooth loss of adult Tanzanians

Background: Tanzanian oral health services constitute mainly of extractions (98% attendance due to pain). DMFT is mainly composed of M and D components. The F component is negligible. Clinical experience as well as epidemiological data indicates that a small percentage of people are severely affected by dental caries and periodontal disease leading to substantial tooth loss and a reduction in the chewing platform. Little is known about how tooth loss affects the chewing ability of the patients. Objectives: The main objective of this study was determining the consequences of tooth loss on chewing ability among patients attending Muhimbili dental clinic. Methods: During a period of three months, adult patients reporting for treatment at the Muhimbili dental clinic with one or more missing teeth (except for third molars) were recruited for the study. Participants were interviewed for demographic information, perceived chewing ability and afterwards, examined clinically to asses: caries status, number and position of missing teeth. Results: Complaints about chewing ability was reported by: (98%) of subjects with 0 - 2 posterior occlusal pairs ; (68%) of subjects with 3-4 posterior occlusal pairs, one third of those with 5-6 posterior occlusal pairs and nearly none (2%) of those with 7 or more posterior occlusal pairs. Majority of subjects with 3-4 and 5-6 posterior occluding pairs could eat the soft foods with ease but not the hard foods. Subjects with more than six posterior occluding pairs appeared to have little problem in chewing across the whole range of selected local foods. Over a third of the participants had one or more teeth with severe overeruption but none reported impairment of chewing. Conclusions: From this study, it is concluded that chewing ability is noticeably impaired in subjects with less than 7 posterior occlusal pairs