A survey assessing modes of maintaining denture hygiene among elderly patients.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the denture hygiene habits in complete denture wearers.


METHODS
In this study, a self-administered structured questionnaire was developed to know the attitude of the patients from the Department of Prosthodontics regarding denture hygiene. The study sample consisted of totally 500 subjects, which included 284 (56.8%) males and 216 (43.2%) females. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 15.0 with Chi-square (χ(2)) test at P < 0.05.


RESULTS
Nearly half of the subjects cleaned their dentures daily once. Participants from the younger age group and who had been wearing dentures since 2 years maintained better frequency of cleaning. The majority of these subjects used water and brush for denture cleansing. After seeing the condition, more than half of the dentures were rated as poor (60%). There was significant difference between all the groups on comparison (P = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Poor condition of complete dentures seen in the population is mainly due to irregular cleansing habits and also less usage of cleansing solutions. Dentists should give proper instructions regarding maintenance of denture hygiene.
Department of Prosthodontic and Crown and Bridge, New Horizon Dental College, Sakri, India.
Ashishtaru
A
Saha
Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Triveni Institute of Dental Sciences, Bodri, Bilaspur, Chattisgarh, India.
Sudipto
S
Dutta
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, New Horizon Dental College, Sakri, India.
Rana K
RK
Varghese
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, New Horizon Dental College, Sakri, India.
Vinay
V
Kharsan
Department of Public Health Dentistry, New Horizon Dental College, Sakri, India.
Anil
A
Agrawal
Cleansing habits; denture; denture hygiene; elder patients; elderly; hygiene