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Relationship of Number of Missing Teeth to Hip Fracture in Elderly Patients

Coming in the March issue of the Journal of Prosthodontics and online now, Dr. Jennifer Priebe and colleagues present the results of a cohort study to determine the relationship between the number of missing natural teeth or remaining natural teeth and osteoporotic hip fracture in elderly patients and to determine the relationship between the number of missing teeth or remaining teeth and osteoporotic fracture risk assessment (FRAX) probability.

One hundred patients (50 without hip fracture and 50 with) were clinically examined to determine number of missing teeth. Ten-year fracture risk and hip fracture risk probabilities were calculated using the FRAX tool. There appears to be an association between the number of missing natural teeth and hip fractures. For every 5-tooth increase in the number of missing teeth, the likelihood of being a subject in the hip fracture group increased by 26%.

Number of missing natural teeth was positively correlated with FRAX overall fracture and hip fracture probability. The authors conclude, “These findings suggested that isolating patients at risk for osteoporotic fracture … may be potentially simplified by assessing patients’ oral conditions.”

Priebe J, Wermers RA, Sems SA, et al: Relationship of number of missing teeth to Hip fracture in elderly patients: A cohort pilot study. J Prosthodont doi:10.1111/jopr.12626

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