Dental treatment needs and demands of an elderly population in England.
A sociodental investigation was conducted among 254 elderly people living at home in Nottingham. A clinical assessment was made of the subjects' dental treatment needs and this was compared with the subjects' felt and expressed needs. Seventy-eight percent of the sample were clinically judged as needing dental treatment, mainly some form of prosthetic treatment. There was, however, a wide discrepancy between the normative and perceived needs of this elderly population. Only 42% of those who were clinically assessed as needing treatment felt that they required it and only 19% had actually tried to obtain it. Many of the elderly mentioned a number of barriers to obtaining dental care; these included the cost of treatment, fear of the dentist, immobility and the feeling that they should not "bother" the dentist
D000368:Aged; D003729:Dental Care / Q000191:economics; D003778:Dentures; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009909:Oral Health; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care