Assessment of Nutritional and Psychosocial Status of Elderly Patients Wearing Removable Dental Prosthetics

Abstract

Introduction: Tooth loss is an age-related problem. As age advances, people's ability to maintain their teeth is affected due to their reduced physical capacity and income. After fitting dentures, resuming a healthy diet can help alleviate a variety of discomforts, both psychological and physiological. The present study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional and psychological status of elderly patients with removable dentures. Materials and Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted among 502 elderly participants to assess their nutritional status and psychological impact on elderly people who recently underwent denture placement. The data regarding nutritional status and its psychological impact due to tooth loss were collected from participants, and after 3 months of adaptability, postdenture data were collected. The survey was conducted in five parts, including initial demographic analysis, nutritional status, and psychological impact before and after denture wearing. Results: > Most participants noticed a substantial increase in food consumption after wearing dentures to 59.76%. About 39.64% of the participants were reported to be skipping their meals regularly before wearing the denture. There was a significant increase in participants' ability to eat hard food, which accounts to be by 66.53%. There was an improvement in confidence in their smile by 32.87% of the participants after wearing dentures compared with their previous state. Only 34.66% of participants were worried about wearing dentures in public. Conclusion: Removable dentures in senior persons had a substantial impact on nutritional balance. The study also claims that wearing a complete denture improves edentulous people's psychological well-being and quality of life.

Denture rehabilitation effect on elders’ nutritional status and quality of life

“…The findings obtained in this study corroborate with the study by Huraib et al (2022) [24], making it possible to identify the improvement in the nutritional status and chewing efficiency of individuals after rehabilitation. However, lean body mass, BMI, and self-perceived health-related quality of life could not provide parameters in the present study due to non-statistically significant data.…”

“…Furthermore, an increase in the negative impact of oral health on quality of life was observed. These findings indicate that rehabilitation with complete dental prostheses through the simplified method contributed to the overall improvement of the individual's health, especially in terms of nutritional aspects [24].…”

Self-perceived oral health

“…Oral rehabilitation using complete dentures (CD) or removable partial dentures (RPD) is intended to replace lost teeth by restoring occlusal support and an efficient masticatory function 9,10 and can restore the patient's lost confidence after tooth loss [11][12][13] .CD or RPD can be considered the first choices of prosthetic treatment due to their cost-effectiveness ratio 14 . They are non-invasive alternatives for treatments involving attachments, conventional fixed dentures, and implant-supported or implant-retained dentures 15 .…”

Comparative Analysis of Edentulism in a Sample of Mexican Adults with and without Type 2 Diabetes

“…Tooth loss and edentulism negatively impact people’s nutritional intake. People with more severe tooth loss may consume significantly fewer basic nutrients from fruits and vegetables, dietary fiber, and protein, compared to those without severe tooth loss [ 8 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Evidence from observational studies showed that tooth loss and edentulism may be associated with multiple adverse health effects [ 15 ].…”