The Veterans Administration in 1963 initiated an interdisciplinary and longitudinal investigation of the normal aging process. Participants consisted of 2,400 men with stable living and work conditions in the Boston, Massachusetts area. From this panel, 1221 self-selected subjects between the ages of 25 and 75 volunteered for the Dental Longitudinal Study in 1968. These persons have received a complete dental examination every three years since 1968. The triennial examinations include a radiographic survey and a comprehensive clinical examination documenting dental caries, periodontal status, missing teeth, and oral hygiene. This project is supplementing these clinical data with detailed utilization data from the dental offices visited by the panel members over the past ten years. The data collection is complete and the information has been integrated with the clinical data. The full dataset is being used as a source of previously unavailable longitudinal information as well as cross sectional information. Findings on episodes of use and nonuse of dental services were presented at the AADR.
