Community dentistry and oral epidemiology
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Oral disadvantage can be defined as the avoidance of certain daily activities because of decrements in oral health. These decrements include oral disease and tissue damage, pain, and functional limitation. The Florida Dental Care Study (FDCS) is a longitudinal study of changes in oral health, which included at baseline 873 subjects who had at least 1 tooth, were 45 years old or older, and who participated for an interview and clinical examination. ⋯ In multivariate analyses that accounted for differences in clinical measures of disease/tissue damage, self-reported disease/tissue damage, oral pain, and oral functional limitation, females were more likely to report disadvantage due to disease/tissue damage, and middle-aged persons and irregular dental attenders were more likely to report oral disadvantage due to pain. In these same regressions, differences in disadvantage due to race, poverty status, socioeconomic status, and rural/urban area of residence were not evident. These results have implications regarding the use of oral disadvantage to assess the long-term effectiveness of dental care.