Dental findings in geriatric populations with diverse medical backgrounds.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether there is a difference in the oral/dental health in older persons with different life styles and medical status.


METHODS
Survey (cross-sectional study) included four groups: (1) subjects (n = 123) living in a residential retirement home or community dwelling; (2) subjects (n = 218) seeking dental treatment at a Veterans Affairs Dental Outpatient Clinic; (3) subjects (n = 132) resident in a VA long-term care facility; and (4) subjects (n = 81) recently admitted to a VA acute care ward with a diagnosis of cerebral vascular accident or other neurologic problem. Each subject answered questions on medical and dental health and dietary preferences in a comprehensive interview. They were given a comprehensive dental examination that included measurements of stimulated salivary flow and minor salivary gland output.


RESULTS
The data from groups 2 and 3 confirmed previous reports that independent living subjects have better oral/dental health than dependent living subjects. The data from groups 1 and 4, obtained from geriatric populations on the opposite ends of the medical health/disease continuum provide new information that suggests that good medical health and good oral/dental health are linked. The subjects in group 1 were very healthy as judged by their longevity; 54% were > or = 80 years and they had low reported prevalence of medical disease. Only 6% were edentulous and the dentate persons were missing 4.5 teeth. In contrast, over 50% of the patients in group 4 were < 70 years; they had an edentulous rate of 49% and among the dentate persons had an average 12 missing and 5 decayed teeth.


CONCLUSIONS
The medically healthy persons had excellent dental health whereas the sickest persons were either edentulous or had many missing teeth.
Loesche
W J
WJ
University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Ann Arbor, USA.
Abrams
J
J
Terpenning
M S
MS
Bretz
W A
WA
Dominguez
B L
BL
Grossman
N S
NS
Hildebrandt
G H
GH
Langmore
S E
SE
Lopatin
D E
DE
D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D016321:Dental Care for Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D016852:Housing for the Elderly; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D008824:Michigan / Q000453:epidemiology; D009735:Nursing Homes; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014728:Veterans; D014987:Xerostomia / Q000453:epidemiology