Avaliação da reabilitação protética numa amostra de idosos institucionalizados

Abstract

Introduction: Edentulism, defined as tooth mortality, and its consequences remain a reality in institutionalized geriatric population. The tooth loss may compromise individual's health. Geriatric population’s characteristics often limit the treatment options for oral rehabilitation with removable dentures. In addition, most of the elderly are not adequately informed about proper care of their prosthesis. Methods: An epidemiological observational cross-sectional study in a populational sample of institutionalized elderly, in which we evaluated a sample of 445 individuals with a mean age of 82.27 ± 8.46 years, 70.1% female and 29.9% male. This study was designed to evaluate the prosthetic rehabilitation, through intra-oral observation and a questionnaire. Results: The DMFT index of the population was 26.31 ± 3.79, with predominance on the number of missing teeth. There were statistically significant differences between number of missing teeth and female gender (p = 0.002) and between frequency of prosthesis cleaning and presence of plaque (p= 0.022). A higher prevalence of Kennedy Class I was observed in both the upper and lower jaw. A higher prevalence of partial edentulous patients without dentures was observed, both in the maxilla (38.7%) and the mandible (42.0%). A significant percentage of participants had been using the same dentures for over 20 years. In general, the elderly are quite satisfied with their dentures. Good stability and retention were observed in the upper prosthesis whilst the opposite was seen in the lower dentures. In general, the elderly are quite satisfied with their dentures. Conclusions: Although further studies are needed, with more representative and probable samples, we noted a lack of information on oral health care and prosthesis hygiene in regard to the institutionalized elderly.

Date of Award	12 Jul 2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Jorge Galvão Martins Leitão (Supervisor) & Nélio Jorge Veiga (Co-Supervisor)