Poor oral health has been associated with age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Given that centenarians and their offspring significantly delay or escape age-related diseases compared to their respective birth cohorts, we hypothesized that oral health is better in these two cohorts relative to published birth-cohort matched results for centenarians and in an offspring cohort referent sample.

Observational cross-sectional study.

The New England Centenarian Study (NECS).

Seventy-three centenarians, 467 offspring, and 251 offspring generation referent cohort subjects from the NECS.

A self-report questionnaire measured oral health in all three groups, with edentulous rate as the primary outcome measure. Socio-demographic and medical history were made available by the NECS. Centenarian results were compared to published birth-cohort matched results. Data from offspring and referent cohorts were analyzed to determine differences in oral health and associations between oral health measures and specific medical conditions.

The edentulous rate of centenarians (36.5%) was lower than their birth cohort (46%) when they were ages 65-74 years in 1971-1974 (per National Center of Health Statistics). Adjusting for confounding factors, in comparison to the centenarian offspring, the referent cohort was more likely to be edentulous (AOR=2.78, 95%, CI=1.17-6.56), less likely to have all or more than half of their own teeth (AOR=0.48, 95%, CI=0.3-0.76), and less likely to report excellent/very good oral health (AOR=0.65, 95%, CI=0.45-0.94).

These findings support the hypothesis that centenarians and their offspring exhibit better oral health than their respective birth cohorts. Oral health may prove to be a helpful marker for systemic health and healthy aging.