Dental state and subjective chewing ability of institutionalized elderly people

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the dental state of the elderly, to provide a subjective appraisal of their chewing ability and their inability to eat certain foods because of their poor dental state. The subjects were 480 residents of 24 municipal old people's homes in different parts of Finland. Of the subjects, 153 were men and 327 women, and their ages ranged from 65 to 100 years. The methods used were clinical examination and interview. The clinical examination revealed that 68% of the subjects had no natural teeth, and 22% had neither natural nor artificial teeth. The number of teeth in dentate subjects was small (average 7.6), and the condition mostly poor. Only 2% had any serviceable counterparts. 51% of the subjects wore dentures: 57 subjects in the maxilla alone, three in the mandible alone and 186 in both maxilla and mandible. 41% said that because of their teeth they were unable to eat some foods they would have liked to eat, crisp bread being mentioned most often as such a food (85% of those with chewing difficulties). Edentulous subjects and dentate subjects wearing both maxillary and mandibular dentures said more often than those without dentures that they could eat everything; those without any teeth had most often (59%) to avoid some foods. More attention should be given to the dental condition and the masticatory function of the elderly, especially of those living in institutions, to ensure that they are comfortable physically, psychologically, and socially for the rest of their lives.

The relationship between satisfaction with mouth and number and position of teeth

“…There were more positive answers, in non‐denture wearers than denture wears. Different results were obtained by Ekelund (1989) who found that more denture wearers could chew what they wanted than non‐denture wearers. The probable reason was the bad condition and the small number of anterior teeth left in the non‐denture wearers.…”

“…The probable reason was the bad condition and the small number of anterior teeth left in the non‐denture wearers. Nevertheless, Ekelund (1989) found that the loss of seven teeth did not impair chewing ability.…”

“…Therefore investigations about the number of missing teeth in relation to oral function will be reviewed first. Some authors assumed that oral function can be affected by the number of teeth ( Agerberg & Carlsson 1981;Wayler & Chauncey 1983;Carlsson 1984;Morita, Koizumi & Watanabe 1989;Ekelund 1989) while others believed that the number of occluding pairs of teeth are the main determinants for oral function ( Mumma & Quinton 1970;Ramfjord 1974;Pilot 1976;Helkimo, Carlsson & Helkimo 1978;Haraldson & Carlsson 1979;Käyser 1981, 1984, 1990;Imperiali, Grundler & Lang 1984;Käyser et al . 1988, 1990 ;Aukes, Käyser & Felling 1988;Oosterhaven et al .…”

Tooth loss and dental caries in institutionalized elderly in Italy

“…In the elderly with maxillary and mandibular natural teeth, the mean nuinber of remaining sound teeth decreased with increasing age, being 9.4 (range 1-22) and 7.7 (range [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] in the group 65-74 yr old and in the oldest group, respectively ( Table 2). The mean number of root remnants and teeth with caries showed the same trend with the highest numbers, 2.8 (range 0-15) and 1.5 (range 0-5), in the 65-74-yr-old group.…”

Oral health and quality of life among elderly in Thai

“…5,6 Oral health status influences a person's self-esteem, self-image, and feelings of social wellbeings. 7,8 Self-rated oral health had an independent effect on current and future self-rated general health after age and other measures of health status were controlled for by multiple regression analyses. 9 The General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI) is a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 12 items and is popularly used to assess the Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL).…”