Evaluation of oral hygiene and dietary status among edentulous, dentate and denture wearers in the elderly

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of dentition and dentures on diet, body mass index and oral health among elderly population. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included sixty elderly participants within age range of 60-75 years. The participants were divided into three groups; Dentate, Edentulous and Complete-Denture wearers. Dietary data was obtained using the 24-hours dietary recall questionnaire and analyzed using Windiet®-2005 software. Oral health status was assessed using the General Oral Health Assessment Index scale (GOHAI). Anthropometric measurements including lean body mass (LBM), body water and fat content were recorded with body composition analyzer. ANOVA with Tukey post-hoc analysis was done for comparison of results among groups. RESULTS: Levels of various parameters showed vitamin B (0.66±1.47μg vs 12 0.43± 0.77μg, p=0.04) for complete-denture wearers vs edentulous; carotene (615.8±58μg vs 257.0±228μg, p=0.03) for dentate vs complete-denture and dietary fibers (17.0±7.24gm vs 10.7±6.3gm, p=0.01) for dentate vs edentulous respectively. LBM was 52.7±8.8 kg vs 42.2±6.5 kg (p<0.001) in dentate vs complete-dentures and 52.5±8.8 kg vs 47.1±6.3 kg (p=0.04) in dentate vs edentulous subjects, respectively. Mean caloric intake was 1750.9±132.9 KCal vs 1649.1±125.1 KCal (p=0.02) in dentate vs complete-dentures. Mean GOHAI was 33.3±1.2, 31.8±2.6, 26.5±2.6 (p<0.001) in dentate, complete-dentures users & edentulous subjects, respectively. Differences in rest of the parameters were non-significant. CONCLUSION: The use of complete-dentures significantly improves oral health status. However, it does not improve the caloric intake and anthropometric measures compared to edentulous subjects. These parameters are not influenced by provision of complete-dentures; rather these are dependent on the duration of edentulousness.