2019 Volume 40 Issue 4 Pages 470-477
Objectives：Appropriate management of the diseases of dental patients with disabilities is important for maintaining and enhancing quality of life. In this study, we conducted a retrospective survey and statistical analysis on patients who had a history of dentist visits for 15 years or more in order to elucidate the relationship between visits and changes in the number of sound teeth, which is an indicator of dental health.
Subjects and Methods：We conducted the following survey on patients of University “A” Special Needs Dentistry with routine or intermittent dental visits for 15 years or more. We examined the following：
a. Dental visits (number of visits, use of anesthesia (intravenous anesthesia or general anesthesia), period of discontinued visits (one year or more))
b. Number of healthy teeth (at the initial visit and 15 years after the initial visit)
c. Relationship with the number of healthy teeth lost during 15 years from the initial visit, number of dental visits, period of discontinued visits, rate of anesthesia usage during dental visits
With the number of healthy teeth lost being the median or more as the primary outcome, we performed a multinomial logistic regression analysis. The significance level of the statistical analysis was 5%.
Results：There were 121 subjects with a median age of 22 years at the initial visit. The median number of healthy teeth at the initial visit was 17.
The median number of dental visits during 15 years was 95. The median rate of anesthesia usage during treatments was 2.3%. Sixty-three (52.1%) subjects had a period of discontinued visits of one year or more.
The median number of healthy teeth lost during 15 years was five.
The factor that had the most impact on the number of healthy teeth lost over 15 years was the period of discontinued visits. The odds ratio was 3.34. This was followed by the rate of anesthesia usage with an odds ratio of 2.30.
Conclusions：The median number of healthy teeth lost over 15 years from the initial dental visit for patients at University “A” Special Needs Dentistry was five. The factor that had the most impact on the number of healthy teeth lost was long-term discontinuation of dental visits, followed by rate of anesthesia usage.
