Pub quiz question

What %age of UK female population in 1968 had no teeth whatsover?

  • 10%

    Votes: 6 15.4%
  • 25%

    Votes: 13 33.3%
  • 40%

    Votes: 20 51.3%

  • Total voters
    39
  • Poll closed .
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I'm not really a pub quiz fan, but we went to one earlier, and I'd appreciate any knowledgeable answers to one specific question please. I will also try (for the first time) to set up a poll, as the answer was multiple choice!

Here goes: What percentage of the UK female population in 1968 had absolutely no teeth of their own, whatsoever? I've managed the poll, so play away, but if you have knowledge of statistics, I'd love a link!

I'm letting the poll run for 48 hours!
 
Last edited:
Id say 25% based on the fact that my grandparents were about 70 then and they had false teeth.
 
Id say 25% based on the fact that my grandparents were about 70 then and they had false teeth.

This question was specific to the female populous, so we'll take your grandfather out of this, but throw your mother in instead!
 
Women's teeth used to be removed after they had had children…don't know why, it was just something they did back then.
 
I've gone with 40%.

Women who give birth tend to have, amongst others, calcium deficiency which would lead to things like tooth loss and when you think of how much bigger families used to be....
 
It wasn't due to damaged caused chowing down on a stick to cope with the pain then lol :)
 
Got to be 40% as obviously small female infants are part of the population and have no teeth either ;) :)
 
Some very good pointers in the 1998 Adult Dental Health Survey

Section: 5.1 - Trends in total tooth loss

http://collection.europarchive.org/tna/20080107220102/http:/www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_health/AdltDentlHlth98_v3.pdf

So, based on starting point of 37% of adults being edentate :dk: in England and Wales 1968, plus newly born females, I guess we are up around 40%.

Defining adults is the tricky bit, and what %age of the population they were, as the link shows variable age groups. If we accept an adult as being 21 back then, and taking into account Bill's toothless tots, I'm thinking 25%! The 2 - 21 age group is a sizeable portion of the populous, one I was in at the time, and I still have all my teeth, and my mother didn't ever need a filling until she was well into 60s, much to her annoyance!
 
Defining adults is the tricky bit, and what %age of the population they were, as the link shows variable age groups. If we accept an adult as being 21 back then, and taking into account Bill's toothless tots, I'm thinking 25%! The 2 - 21 age group is a sizeable portion of the populous, one I was in at the time, and I still have all my teeth, and my mother didn't ever need a filling until she was well into 60s, much to her annoyance!

I couldn't find UK Census data for 1966, but the Northern Ireland census is online here:

http://www.nisra.gov.uk/archive/census/1966/general-report.pdf

Unless I've misinterpreted the data, table XIX shows that girls between 0 and 19 years represented approximately 35% of the 1966 N.I. female population as a whole. Assuming 35% works for the rest of the UK too, then the report data previously mentioned would apply to the remaining 65% of the population - and wouldn't that make it 65% of 37% equalling circa 24%? Add a little more for the newly borns and as you say, you are much closer to 25% than 40%.

Cool.
 
I was chatting to a women on a train to glasgow about a year ago, she was a dental expert going to a seminar thing, what she told me about the standard of the nations teeth on a whole in this day and age, i'd say with 99.9% certainty that the answer is 40%

I was shocked at some of the things she was telling me, familys sharing one toothbrush etc!
 
My Mum always blames me for sapping all her calcium whilst she was pregnant with me, ultimately she lost all her teeth from lack of calcium. That was 1953 /54 when I was hatched.
Even with advances in increased vitamins for women. 40% still seems a possibility.
I lost many of mine in a motorcycle accident in 1974 and over the following years the rest followed suit.
 
Women's teeth used to be removed after they had had children…don't know why, it was just something they did back then.

One of my nans used to eat coal when she was 'expecting' (which was most of the time... 8 kids !!) I think she was single handedly trying to re-populate the UK after the tremendous casualties of the war.
My point was... if she was eating so much coal, no wonder she didn't have a single bloody tooth in her head.haha Apparrently eating coal was supposed to be a source of vitamins and nourishment.:dk: A bit of an old wives tale me thinks, but may account for the older female generation not having any teeth :D btw 45%
 
Coal and raw liver.......

No wonder I have a hankering for pot holing and a gravy covered liver n bacon dinner :)
 
I couldn't find UK Census data for 1966, but the Northern Ireland census is online here:

http://www.nisra.gov.uk/archive/census/1966/general-report.pdf

Unless I've misinterpreted the data, table XIX shows that girls between 0 and 19 years represented approximately 35% of the 1966 N.I. female population as a whole. Assuming 35% works for the rest of the UK too, then the report data previously mentioned would apply to the remaining 65% of the population - and wouldn't that make it 65% of 37% equalling circa 24%? Add a little more for the newly borns and as you say, you are much closer to 25% than 40%.

Cool.

Like minded calculations, and thanks for the research! As it goes, we are both wrong according to the quiz master, and the general consensus is 40%, which was his informed answer - but I'm not convinced. As a 14 year old back then, I don't remember 4 in every 10 females I spoke to wearing dentures!
 
As a 14 year old back then, I don't remember 4 in every 10 females I spoke to wearing dentures!

As a 14 year old, would you not be looking at other things instead? :devil:
 
As a 14 year old, would you not be looking at other things instead? :devil:

Fair point(s), GVM! I don't ever remember saying "show us yer gums!"
 
4 in every 10 females I spoke to wearing dentures!

Every cloud 'n' all that...

:devil:
 

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