Even many older U.S. residents with relatively high incomes have lost all of their natural teeth.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported that finding in a look at oral health data from the 2005-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Rather than simply asking U.S. residents to report on their own oral health, the NHANES researchers send dentists to look in survey participants' mouths.
One of the indicators the investigators looked for is edentulism, or loss of all natural teeth in people ages 65 and older.