Mei Na Tan, Nair Rahul, Di Ying Joanna Ngo, Yee Robert
University Dental Cluster, National University Hospital, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119074.
Discipline of Oral Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, National University of Singapore, 11 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119083, Singapore.
Singapore Dent J. 2014 Dec;35:9-15. doi: 10.1016/j.sdj.2014.07.002.
Past studies have examined the oral health status of elderly Singaporean adults residing in long term care facilities and living in residential housing but no oral health research has been conducted on elderly Singaporeans residing in community homes. The aim of this paper is to report on the oral health status and complete denture status of a group of free living (community dwelling) elderly in Singapore from the AWWA Community Home for Senior Citizens, and investigate the relation between the clinical findings and demographic data.
This research used a cross-sectional design and was conducted in the month of December 2011. Consenting residents of the AWWA home who were over the age of 60 participated in this study. Sampling strategy was census. Two calibrated interviewers collected demographic information from the participants and four calibrated dentists conducted extra-oral and intra-oral soft tissue examinations along with assessment of dentition, periodontal and denture status.
All data were input into Microsoft Excel 2010(™) and analysed in SPSS 21.0(™). Descriptive analysis and bivariate analysis were performed on the demographic factors and other variables of interest. The Spearman׳s test, Mann-Whitney U and Chi-Square test were used to examine the correlation between the clinical findings and age, gender and education level respectively.
Among the 70 participants, two subjects (2.9%) had complete dentition, 34 (48.6%) were partially dentate, and 34 (48.6%) had no teeth. The mean number of teeth among the partially dentate participants was 11.28 while the mean number of anterior, posterior and total occlusal contacts were 1.61, 2.17 and 3.78 respectively. The mean number of decayed teeth (DT) and filled teeth (FT) were 2.81 and 0.25, giving a mean DFT score of 3.06. The mean Root Caries Index was 0.13. Periodontal examination revealed that only 5 (13.9%) individuals had healthy periodontal tissues, while 2 (5.6%) had the highest score of 1, 9 (25.0%) had the highest score of 2, 11 (30.6%) had the highest score of 3 and 7 (19.4%) had the highest score of 4. Amongst the partially dentate, 14 had dentures and 20 had none. There were 34 edentulous participants and 23 had at least one denture while 11 did not have any complete dentures. The most frequent unsatisfactory finding for complete dentures was inadequate retention of the mandibular dentures. When the dentures were grouped into those that were satisfactory and those that had at least one unsatisfactory factor, 11 of the 26 maxillary dentures and 17 of the 23 mandibular dentures fell to the latter category. Analysis revealed that there was a correlation between age and the number of teeth with a correlation coefficient of -0.43 (p=0.01) and age with the mean DFT, -0.33 (p=0.05).
The findings of this study revealed a high treatment need for this group of elderly.
过去的研究调查了居住在长期护理机构和住宅中的新加坡老年成年人的口腔健康状况，但尚未对居住在社区之家的新加坡老年人进行口腔健康研究。本文旨在报告来自新加坡乐龄人士协会社区老人之家的一组自由生活（居住在社区）的老年人的口腔健康状况和全口义齿状况，并调查临床检查结果与人口统计学数据之间的关系。
本研究采用横断面设计，于2011年12月进行。乐龄人士协会老人之家60岁以上且同意参与的居民参加了本研究。抽样策略为普查。两名经过校准的访谈员收集了参与者的人口统计学信息，四名经过校准的牙医进行了口腔外和口腔内软组织检查，并评估了牙列、牙周和义齿状况。
所有数据输入到Microsoft Excel 2010（™）中，并在SPSS 21.0（™）中进行分析。对人口统计学因素和其他感兴趣的变量进行了描述性分析和双变量分析。分别使用Spearman检验、Mann-Whitney U检验和卡方检验来检验临床检查结果与年龄、性别和教育水平之间的相关性。
在70名参与者中，两名受试者（2.9%）牙列完整，34名（48.6%）为部分牙列缺损，34名（48.6%）无牙。部分牙列缺损参与者的平均牙数为11.28颗，而前牙、后牙和总咬合接触的平均数分别为1.61、2.17和3.78。龋坏牙（DT）和充填牙（FT）的平均数分别为2.81颗和0.25颗，DFT平均得分为3.06。根龋指数平均为0.13。牙周检查显示，只有5名（13.9%）个体牙周组织健康，2名（5.6%）得分最高为1分，9名（25.0%）得分最高为2分，11名（30.6%）得分最高为3分，7名（19.4%）得分最高为4分。在部分牙列缺损者中，14人有义齿，20人没有。有34名无牙参与者，23人至少有一副义齿，11人没有任何全口义齿。全口义齿最常见的不满意之处是下颌义齿固位不足。当义齿分为满意和至少有一个不满意因素两类时，26副上颌义齿中有11副、23副下颌义齿中有17副属于后一类。分析显示，年龄与牙数之间存在相关性，相关系数为-0.43（p=0.01），年龄与DFT平均数之间也存在相关性，为-0.33（p=0.05）。
本研究结果显示，这组老年人的治疗需求很高。
