An important aspect of the NIDR Amalgam Study of Air Force Veterans is an inventory of dental restorative materials found in the study population which can serve as the basis for constructing exposure variables. This project reports on the distributions of dental materials found in a military population. Dental examinations were performed on 1166 male veterans to obtain tooth and surface specific data on existing restorations. Dental materials were classified into five categories: amalgams, resins, porcelains (including cements and temporaries), gold and other metals. The mean age of these veterans was 52.9 years. Overall, 5.2% of the participants were edentulous. Dentate individuals averaged 19.9 amalgam surfaces per person, 18.4 resin and porcelain surfaces combined and 10.4 surfaces for gold and other metals combined. Slightly more than 1/2 of all restored surfaces in dentate individuals were restored with amalgam. Unlike all other restorative materials whose mean number of restored surfaces increased with age, the number of amalgam surfaces varied with age peaking at 22.3 surfaces in the 50-54 year old age group to a low of 14.7 surfaces in the 65-78 year old age group.
