Elderly oral health condition in palliative care at public hospitals from Recife-PE, Brazil

Abstract

This research aimed to evaluate the oral health condition of elderly people undergoing palliative care in public hospitals in the city of Recife-PE, Brazil. A sociodemographic questionnaire and the DMFT index were applied, as well as clinically evaluating the number of teeth, oral manifestations, use and types of dental prostheses. A descriptive analysis of the data was carried out and Fisher´s Exact Test was used with a significance level of p=0.05. 130 elderly people in palliative care participated, 55% were male and 70% were aged between 60 and 79 years. Regarding the number of teeth present in the mouth, 76% had between 0 and 10 teeth and 55% used dental prostheses, the most prevalent being the upper complete denture at 86%. The most prevalent oral manifestation was tongue coating and xerostomia with 58%. DMFT-d had a mean value of 27.3, which is considered very high, and was associated with the number of teeth with p=0.05. It is concluded that the DMFT index of elderly people receiving palliative care was considered very high, which makes it important to install prevention and intervention programs to improve the oral health condition of these people.