Oral health behavior and the number of functional teeth present in Thais age 50 - 90 years in Bangkok.

Abstract

This study aimed to find out the senior citizen's behavior of their oral health care in daily life and the number of their functional teeth remaining in oral cavities. These senior citizens were between 50 -90 years old who came for the BMA medical service in December 1998 - April 1999. About 300 elders, 105 males and 195 females joined the Elderly Club's activities in 6 BMA Public Health Centers. The activities were to check of their functional teeth present as well as to provide them questionnaires on the perception of their oral health status, tooth brushing, oral health care, eating between meal habits and dental attendance in the past. The result of this study indicated the mean number of functional teeth in male elders was 16.9 higher than 12.7 in the female elders (P<0.01). Most the elders had dental problems. 79.3 % of elders were not satisfied with their teeth, 60 % could not chew the hard food and 40 % were used to have toothache in the past year. The group, who answered that their oral health were still good, have an average of remaining functional teeth greater than the group who answered that their oral health were not good (p < 0.01). Mean number of functional teeth present had a significant relationship with prior scaling (P<0.05). It was suggested that to keep more functional teeth in the elders, BMA should consider on promoting scaling to the public.