The Study of Dental Situation and Factors Associated with Functional Teeth Status among Elderly in Phetchabun Province

Abstract

This descriptive research was aimed to determine the dental situation and analyze factors associated with functional teeth status among elderly in Phetchabun province. Simple random sampling was used for data collection process 2,105 samples during May- August 2012. A survey was conducted to investigate the situation of elderly dental health by both oral examination and using interview process. The results revealed the followings : 58.8 % were female with an average age of 68.5 years, 47 % had their permanent teeth more than 20 teeth and 37.8 % of them had more than 4 pairs of occlusion teeth, with the average retained teeth about 17 teeth, but 13.5 % of responders were edentulous and 10.4 % used complete dentures. About dental care and protection, there were 46.3 % of responders had dental care last year. In addition, there were the significant relationship between functional teeth status and associated factors including the use of medication in systematic diseases,  evening tooth cleaning ,  embrasure tooth cleaning and last year dental care. (p<0.05)