Factors affecting the distribution and prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in complete denture wearers.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the frequency of the oral lesions related to gender, age, the length of time of denture usage, education level and economic status.


METHODS
The 153 patients with old complete dentures (CD) were asked to participate in the investigation. The subjects (76 male and 77 female) were 37-85 years of age with a mean age of 61.8 ± 9.8 years. Education, economic status and age factors were estimated in subgroups. The data obtained were evaluated by one-way anova, Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Student's t-test and chi-squared test. The level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05.


RESULTS
The patients who had denture stomatitis and traumatic ulcers were statistically significantly older than the ones who did not have these lesions (p<0.05). Based on the length of denture usage, patients who had a flabby ridge, fibrous inflammatory hyperplasia, traumatic ulcers (p<0.01) and denture stomatitis (p<0.05) were using their dentures statistically significantly longer than the ones who had healthy tissues.


CONCLUSIONS
The CD wearers should be advised to visit their dentist regularly to prevent oral mucosal lesions due to the changing supporting tissues during the length of denture usage and to improve their quality of life.
Mandali
Gamze
G
Directorate of Provincial Private Administration Hospital for Oral and Dental Health, Istanbul, Turkey.
Sener
Işıl Damla
ID
Turker
Sebnem Begum
SB
Ulgen
Hasan
H
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003824:Denture, Complete / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005886:Gingival Hypertrophy / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006965:Hyperplasia; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000473:pathology; D019226:Oral Ulcer / Q000453:epidemiology; D021362:Palate, Hard / Q000473:pathology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class; D013282:Stomatitis, Denture / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology