Oral health status of elderly dementia patients in hospitals

Objectives: With the steady increase in the elderly population in Korea, proper oral health care has become a social issues, particularly with those with other health problems. Elderly in long-term hospital care are faced with major oral diseases. This study was evaluated and compared the oral health status of old patients with and without dementia in private institionalized hospital of supported health insurance system.

Methods: The sample for this study consisted of 186 hospitalized adults over 65 years old, 98 with dementia group(DG)and 88 without dementia group (NDG),in Boseong county in 2007. The survey of oral health status was carried out the DMF and periodontal condition of the elderly both groups and analyzed statistical significance of group,age level and duration .

Results:The DG, DT rate was 20% and DT index was 0.5 times higher than the NDG. In the periodontal condition, the DG had a 6.1% higher bleeding rate and 3.8% higher of gingivitis than the NDG.The DG was three times more likely to require conservertive treatment. The rate of prothodontic treatment need of DG was 41.9% in full denture and 11.2% in partial denture. Composition with the oral health status of the NDG has more need removal of calculus and plaque control and it increased with age. Statiscally significant showed that it was different the number of teeth and the type of denture in both groups.

Conclusions: There are numerous barrier in the oral health care of old people.The elderly with dementia group has more need preventive treatments with regular dental care.For the oral health related quality of life hospitalized elderly,it is reinforce to increase the awareness of health care providers including nurses.