Poor oral hygiene, wearing dentures at night, perceptions of mouth dryness and burning, and lower educational level may be related to oral malodor in denture wearers.

SUBJECTS

The study sample was recruited from edentulous patients seeking new dentures at the Kirikkale University Denture Clinic, Turkey. Male (n = 56) and female (n = 49) participants were enrolled and ranged from 50 to 78 years of age (mean age 60.7 6 7.7 years). All 105 completed baseline evaluations, new denture therapy, and follow-up examination approximately 4 weeks after denture treatment completion. The study was approved by the institution's Ethics Committee. Dates for patient recruitment and conduct of the study were not provided.

KEY EXPOSURE/STUDY FACTOR: For the prognostic component of the study, the primary factors of interest were sociodemographic characteristics, medical conditions previously related to oral malodor, and self-reported oral hygiene habits. The primary exposure for the interventional component was oral hygiene instruction, including brushing the tongue, cleaning the denture, and not wearing the denture at night. After treatment with new dentures, participants were instructed to follow these hygiene instructions daily and were evaluated 4 weeks later.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

The primary outcome measure was the degree of oral malodor with the original conventional dentures and following new denture treatment and oral hygiene instruction with 4 weeks of self-administered hygiene care. Oral malodor was expressed both quantitatively as the number of parts per billion (ppb) of volatile sulfide compounds (VSCs) and as a binary measure (present/absent) based on a threshold for oral malodor of greater than 110 ppb.

MAIN RESULTS

Significant relationships with oral malodor (level of VSCs) at baseline with the original denture were found for education (those having only primary school education were more likely to have higher VSC level, odds ratio [OR] 8.6, P = .046), self-reported oral dryness (OR 2.5, P = .037), self-reported overnight denture wear (OR 0.342 [likely a typographical error in the table; based on the 95% CI of 1.59 to 8.35, the OR is probably 3.42], P = .002), and level of bacterial plaque coverage on the tongue (coating apparent on less than one third of the tongue, OR = 26.4, P = .002; coating apparent on one third to two thirds of the tongue, OR 206.7, P = .0001). The level of VSCs dropped significantly (P < .01) from baseline (mean ppb108.1 623.2) to 4 weeks post new denture treatment completion and self-administered oral hygiene (mean ppb 104.0 619.7).

CONCLUSIONS

The authors' conclusions were that ratings of elevated bacterial plaque on the tongue, subject perceptions oforal dryness and burning mouth, wearing dentures over-night, and lower educational levels were related to presence of oral malodor, and that tongue hygiene care and removal of dentures at night reduce oral malodor levels.