The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of root caries in an elderly Japanese population. A total of 265 elderly people over 60 years of age were examined between 1990 and 1991. Of these subjects, 161 dentate elderly people, who had 12.8 present teeth on the average, were available for assessment. The proportion of sujects with gingival recession in this population was 62.3% in the 60-69-year-old group, 45.9% in the 70-79-year-old group, and 38.2% in the 80+ -year-old

more »

... group, with an average of 49.7%. The percentage of the subjects with one or more cases of active root caries was 13.7%. The prevalence of active root caries ranged from 10.8% at age 70-79 to 17.6% at age 80+. The proportion of persons with active and/or inactive root caries ranged from 18.9% at age 70-79 to 24.5% at age 60-69. The percentage of subjects with active and/or inactive caries and/or root fillings varied from 23.5% at age 80+ to 32.1% at age. 60-69. The prevalence of active root caries in the subjects at risk (with gingival recession) was 27.5% on the average and ranged from 23.5% at age 70-79 to 46.2% at age 80+.