Survey of Oral Health for Old People in Elderly Care Facility

Abstract

Elderly care faciliities and welfare services are becoming more important as the aging tendancy accelarates and the proportion of the elderly population increases. However, in long-term care ratings for elderly care services, evaluation criteria for oral health or oral hygiene managing ability are insufficient. In this study, we surveyed the teeth condition of the elderly in long-term care facilities located in Korea, and compared with the results of KNHANES. Correlation analysis was performed between collected data about teeth condition and other factors of patients including other oral hygiene conditions, information about long-term care, and systemic diseases.The above can be summarized as results and proposals as follows.1. Teeth conditions including natural teeth of elderly in long-term care facilities are worse than general people. The elderly in long-term care facilities were proven to have less natural teeth, less percentage of natural teeth more than 20, and be more edentulous than general people.2. Three indices about natural teeth also had correlation with periodontal condition, xerostomia, and temporomandibular disorders. Also, number of prosthesis and dental caries had correlation with each other, and had relation with salivary function.3. Since maintaining the natural teeth is nationally considered as infortant factors to maintain the quality of life, management of natural teeth, and eventually, general oral health should be performed necessarily in the elderly of long-term care facilities.