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People´s interest in maintaining healthy oral condition seems to be increasing rapidly. Patients often ask to dental professionals about own oral health status. "How is my oral status compared with my peers?" or "How is my oral status likely to change in the future?" It is not easy for practitioners to explain patients´ oral health status accurately and comprehensibly. There are currently few materials available to dental professionals to assist them in providing oral health instruction to patients, and the materials that do exist are for the most part not empirically supported. Therefore, in this book I introduce several educational materials which incorporate percentile curves from my studies on tooth loss. These materials can be easily used by any dental professional, with no prior training, to increase patient awareness in clinical settings.

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Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Tokyo Dental College

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