Tooth absence and chewing, swallowing and speech complaints in adults

Objective: This study intended to search if tooth absence in adults shows any relationship with chewing, swallowing and speech complaints.

Methods: 50 adult individuals, who were chicken farm workers, living in the city of Bariri, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, between the ages of 18 and 52, took part in this study. The selected participants were subjected to a dental examination and a speech, language and hearing interview. For the analysis of the results, individuals with tooth loss (experimental group – EG) and without tooth loss (control group – CG) were compared based on the performance of the Chi-Square test.

Results: The results revealed a higher occurrence of unilateral chewing in the EG (61.54%) and the chewing time showing itself inadequate for most of the individuals in both groups. Claims of difficulties and pain in chewing were present only in the EG, which showed a statistically significant difference (p<05). Most of the individuals of the CG also mentioned the use of some drinking liquids to facilitate the swallowing, without a statistically significant difference. There was no report of complaints related to speech in either group.

Conclusion: The findings revealed that the absence of teeth in adults showed a relation only with the complaints with difficulty and pain during chewing.