title: Factors affecting the distribution and prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in complete denture wearers.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Directorate of Provincial Private Administration Hospital for Oral and Dental Health, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gamze
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mandali
authors.forename: Işıl Damla
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Sener
authors.forename: Sebnem Begum
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Turker
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ulgen
mesh_terms: 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