PURPOSE: to investigate if tooth absence in adults shows any relationship with chewing, swallowing and speech complaints. METHODS: 50 adults, who were poultry farm workers from Bariri municipality, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, between the ages of 18 and 52, took part in this study. The selected participants were evaluated by a dentist and interview were carried out by two speech and language pathologist, in one of the municipality's office which has a contract of service rendering with the poultry farm. For analyzing the results, individuals with and without tooth loss, referred to as, respectively, the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG), and 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 showed itself inadequate for the 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<0.05). Most of the individuals of the CG also mentioned the use of some drinking liquids to facilitate swallowing, without a statistically significant difference. There was no report of complaints related to speech in both groups. CONCLUSION: the findings revealed that the absence of teeth in adults showed relation only with the complaints with difficulty and pain during chewing.
Tooth Loss; Mastication; Deglutition
